Cheteshwar Pujara breaks silence after omission from West Indies tour with cryptic post

In the recent World Test Championship (WTC) final played between June 7 to June 12 at Oval, Pujara scored 14 and 27 respectively in both innings. There were a lot of expectations from Pujara after he had enjoyed an form in County Championship for Sussex. India lost the match to Australia by 209 runs. This was second World Test Championship (WTC) final loss for India after New Zealand trounced India in the 2021 inaugural edition of the final.

Earlier on Friday, Indian selectors announced announced squads the upcoming West Indies tour. Up-and-coming batsmen Yashasvi Jaiswal,21, and Ruturaj Gaikwad, 26, have been included in the 16-member squad for a two-Test series starting July 12. Jaiswal and Gaikwad were among the top run-getters in this year’s Indian Premier League tournament.

Rohit Sharma will lead the team in the Tests and three ODIs. The squad for the following five T20 matches is yet to be announced. Ajinkya Rahane, who made a great comeback at the Oval and was one of the few Indian batters who score meaningful runs in the WTC final, will serve as Rohit’s deputy in Tests and Hardik Pandya is vice-captain in the ODIs.

Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the decision to omit Pujara from the West Indies tour. The former India captain questioned why Cheteshwar Pujara has been made a “scapegoat” for India’s batting failures while other batters who played in the WTC final have been retained. “Why has he been dropped? Why has he been made the scapegoat for our batting failures? He has been a loyal servant of Indian cricket,” Gavaskar told India Today. Gavaskar also said that “today, people can play till they are 39-40. There’s nothing wrong, they’re all very fit; as long as you are producing runs and taking wickets, I do not think age should be a factor. Clearly only one man has been singled out, while the others who have failed…to me, the batting failed. Apart from (Ajinkya) Rahane, the batting completely failed.”

Gavaskar had also questioned the exclusion of Sarfaraz Khan, who has scored loads of runs in the domestic league over the past three seasons.

India test squad for West Indies
Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini.

India ODI squad for West Indies
Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar.