Sunil Gavaskar takes indirect dig at Virat Kohli, asks why only Cheteshwar Pujara was snubbed from Test team

The BCCI announced India's squads for the West Indies series and to everyone's surprise, India's number three in Tests, Cheteshwar Pujara was dropped from the tour.

Sunil Gavaskar takes indirect dig at Virat Kohli, asks why only Cheteshwar Pujara was snubbed from Test team

Sunil Gavaskar takes dig at Virat Kohli after Cheteshwar Pujara's Test snub (Image via Twitter)

The BCCI announced India’s squads for the West Indies series on Friday which brought in various reactions from everyone. The exclusion of Cheteshwar Pujara from the Test side has left Sunil Gavaskar fuming since other big names like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma who also failed to perform in the WTC Final have been given another go.

Right after the WTC Final as well, Sunil Gavaskar had criticized the team for its ineffective performance and “ridiculous” batting and asked Indian batters to step up in such crucial matches.

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The former India captain was extremely unhappy with Virat Kohli’s wicket in the second innings and said, “It was a bad shot. You should ask Kohli what shot he played. How are you going to do that (win a match by playing long innings) if you play a ball so far outside the off stump?”

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Sunil Gavaskar defends Cheteshwar Pujara

Cheteshwar Pujara
Cheteshwar Pujara (Source: News18)

After the batting horror in the WTC Final by India, Sunil Gavaskar believed that Cheteshwar Pujara is singlehandedly being held responsible for the loss and only he is facing the consequences by being dropped from the side. Talking to India Today, he said, “Why is he being made the scapegoat for our batting failures? He has been a servant of Indian cricket, a loyal servant.”

Gavaskar took a subtle dig at former skipper Virat Kohli who also failed to perform in the WTC Final by asking whether Pujara has been dropped because he doesn’t have enough social media followers to defend him. He said, “Why is he [Cheteshwar Pujara] dropped then? Because he doesn’t have millions of followers on whatever platforms who would make a noise in case he gets dropped?”

Sunil Gavaskar also believes that all the big names on the Test side should be rested for a while and others should be given chances. The question that arises now is whether Pujara’s exclusion from the Test side is an indicator of BCCI’s long-term plan or if will he be back in whites for India again.

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