Cheteshwar Pujara, a nestor ranked No. 3 in India’s batting order, has been dropped from the West Indies Tour and great spin. Harbhajan Singh feels that Indian cricket has not exactly learned to appreciate his contribution. “I have a lot of respect for Chesteshwar Pujara for what he has achieved. He has been an unsung hero of the Indian team for many years. He is one of those pillars of strength for India, doing the dirty work to hold on there.” , to make sure other batters got their consolation,” Harbhajan was blunt as ever in his assessment in an interview with PTI.
Harbhajan has expressed huge dismay at the “disrespect” towards the Saurashtra man and the fact that the yardstick to judge performance has not been the same for every senior player. “I think he should be given a bit more respect than what he’s been given and the way he was kicked out of the team was a surprise to me. Because he’s not the only one not scoring points. There are others like Well who are in playing the same team and scoring points with the same average,” said Harbhajan.
He didn’t name any other player, but it could be a thinly veiled reference to Virat Kohli’s under-30 average over the same period, the time when Pujara struggled for high scores and recently paid the price.
“I think the rules should be the same for everyone, not different for different people. Look, if you want to drop an older guy like him, talk to him and make him understand ‘look this is what we want to do’. Tell him what the way forward, make sure he understands. All he needs is a little more respect.”
Harbhajan is also annoyed that Pujara’s success rate and intention are questioned time and time again, without people understanding that a test team needs traditional players, who provide balance.
“In Pujara’s case, we keep hearing about his success rate of scoring runs in Tests, but because of that success rate, the wickets remain intact and that’s a huge contribution,” he said.
“So you have to see which guy contributes what. You have to see how much the team needs him. In my opinion, the team still needs him.”
“When you go abroad (SENA countries) you need a batsman like that because you can’t have everyone playing strokes all the time. You need someone who plays normal Test cricket like Chesteshwar Pujara.”
Harbhajan was full of praise for Ajinkya Rahane for the way he staged a comeback in the Test arena, striking 89 and 46 against Australia in the WTC final at the Oval. “The way he made his comeback, he looked really good in that WTC final. Now he’s the vice captain again,” he said.
“You have to show confidence in these players so that they can do well again. A good player is a good player. Doesn’t matter if you go forward or backward (with his squad).”
Topics mentioned in this article
