Srinagar: Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has hit out at BCCI selectors for making one man Cheteshwar Pujara scapegoat for India’s WTC Final loss and dropping senior batter from West Indies tour.
BCCI on Friday announced ODI and Test squads for West Indies series. Senior batter Pujara was left out of the Test squad.
“Why has he been made the scapegoat for our batting failures? He has been a loyal servant of Indian cricket, a quiet and able achiever. But because he doesn’t have millions of followers on whatever platforms who would make a noise in case he gets dropped, you drop him? That is something beyond understanding,” said Gavaskar on Sports Today.
“What is the criteria for dropping him and keeping the others who failed. I don’t know because nowadays there is no media interaction with the selection committee chairman or whoever where you could actually ask these questions,” he said.
Gavaskar pointed out that Pujara was not the only Indian batter who failed to score big in the WTC final, which India lost to Australia by 209 runs. Pujara fell for 14 and 27 runs in the two innings.
“Yes he has been playing County cricket, he knows what the red ball is all about,” said Gavaskar about Pujara. “Nowadays players can play till they are 39 or 40, there is nothing wrong with that. They are all very fit and as long as you are producing runs or taking wickets, I don’t think age should be a factor. Clearly only one man has been singled out while the others also failed. To me, the batting failed. Apart from Ajinkya Rahane, there was nobody who got any runs. So why Pujara has been made the fall guy is something the selectors need to explain,” he said.