Cheteshwar Pujara played crucial roles in India’s last two triumphant Australia tours. In 2018-19, he made the Aussie bowlers dance to his tunes, scoring 521 runs and bagging the Player of the Series award. On the next trip to Australia, he could muster just 271 runs but his gritty knocks in Sydney and Brisbane made the difference.
Despite becoming part of history twice, the veteran Indian batter may not find a spot in the squad when Rohit Sharma’s Team India travels to Australia later this year in November. Pujara has fallen back in the pecking order in Tests and it’s highly unlikely would be picked for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson reckons India will not feel the absence of Pujara in the Test series Down Under with the emergence of young talents who have already proved their mettle in the recent past.
“When you talk about Pujara is that he just doesn’t make a mistake. Whereas you’ve seen so many of these incredible batters for India, top-order batters like Jaiswal, he has scored runs very quickly, but he hasn’t made a mistake. He hasn’t really given the opposition a chance to be able to get him out,” Shane Watson said, as per news agency PTI.
Showing his faith in the current Indian Test squad, Shane Watson said, “If those types of batters do come out to Australia and play aggressively, put the bad balls away and put the pressure on the Aussie bowlers, then they can still have the same effect (as with Pujara in the team) and they keep the game moving as well.”
According to Shane Watson, the young batters of the Indian team can demonstrate their skills on Australian surfaces while also “scoring runs quickly” to “put pressure” on the opposition bowling unit.
With Cheteshwar Pujara out of the Test squad, Shubman Gill has taken up the number three position. The 25-year-old made his debut in red-ball cricket in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He scored to half-centuries in the series including that heroic 91 at Gabba.
Shubman Gill’s overall performance in overseas conditions, however, has not been quite impressive. Coming down to bat at number, he has played four Tests away from home and has managed 119. Meanwhile, Cheteshwar Pujara has superb numbers in Australia. He has averaged over 50 while registering 972 runs.
As a number three batter, Cheteshwar Pujara has amassed 2999 runs at an average of 38.44 in overseas Tests. He has eight centuries on foreign soil and three of them came against Australia.
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