‘2 Saal Pehle hi nikal dena chahiye tha’ - Fans react as Cheteshwar Pujara gets dropped from India’s Test squad for West Indies tour

Team India are all set to tour West Indies for a full-fledged series where they will play two Tests, three ODIs, and five ODIs. Now, ahead of the tour, on 23 June 2023, the Indian Cricket Board announced the squad for both the Test and ODI series. However, Cheteshwar Pujara got dropped from the Test squad.

Advertisment

After losing the World Test Championship (WTC) final, fans were very critical of Pujara’s batting. Despite playing a lot of County cricket and being known as a Test specialist, his shot selection raised concerns among fans. Thus, they raised their voice to remove him from the squad and now, he got dropped. Seeing that fans shared their views on social media.

Cheteshwar Pujara has played 103 Tests so far for Team India

Pujara has been a disappointment in recent times as since 2020, he has scored only one century in 52 innings of 28 Tests with a poor average of 29.69. In the WTC final, Pujara left a ball due to miss judgement and that hit the stump in the first innings. While in the second innings, he went for a fancy uppercut and managed an edge to the keeper. So, fans and former cricketers were not happy.

Advertisment

The former Team India coach, Ravi Shastri, while speaking to Star Sports, said: “Never expected that shot from Pujara...that is get-out shot and he is back in the hut. It's not the scoreboard pressure but poor shot selection.” As of now, Pujara has played 103 Tests where he has scored 7195 runs, at an average of 43.60. He has notched up 35 fifties and 19 centuries so far. It also includes three double hundreds with his highest score being 206* against England in 2012. He has surpassed 150 or more four times.   

TEST Squad: Rohit Sharma (Capt), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (VC), KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, and Navdeep Saini.

Here is how fans have reacted:

Advertisment

County cricket khel bhai tu wahi sahi hai

— Luckyy (@oyeluckyy_) June 23, 2023

Finally a good decision made

— praneeth31 (@paneeth31) June 23, 2023

Happy Retirement PUJI ♥️😓

— Butcher 🔪🔪 (@00_butcher) June 23, 2023

Good bye uncle. My friends favourite cricketer @Uday112145

— Yathi (@No_breathe11) June 23, 2023

😭😭

— #🌶️ (@deepu_tweetz) June 23, 2023

2 Saal Pehle hi nikal dena chahiye tha

Har 4 Test Match ke Baad 50 Score karega aur agali 3 Test me Hagega
Fir 4th Test Match Me Half Century marke 3 Test Ke liye Fix ho jayega....

— Vaibhav D (@Vaibhav04563161) June 23, 2023

Considering how it worked out for rahane it's a great move i would say Pujara's supposed to be our number one guy in tests and he failed

— Chainsaw Charlie (@Vivek29858922) June 23, 2023

Sad to see this.. but I think team india will move on..

— 🇮🇳SaM🇦🇺 (@virat18Samkohli) June 23, 2023

Pujarapic.twitter.com/okv6Fo318J

— Tweeting Quarantino (@rohitadhikari92) June 23, 2023