Veteran Indian national cricket team batsman Cheteshwar Pujara has been released by Sussex ahead of the 2025 edition of the county championship. Instead of the veteran batsman, the county team preferred to retain Australian national cricket team batsman Dan Hughes.
This comes after Dan Hughes guaranteed his availability for all County Championship and T20 Blast matches throughout the season. This is a major setback for Cheteshwar Pujara, who has been Sussex’s star player in the last season.
Cheteshwar Pujara has been playing for Sussex for the last three years. The Indian batsman has scored a huge number of runs for the team and is the main reason behind their success. He also had an excellent season this year in the few matches that he played for the team. He did not play once Dan Hughes returned to the team.
In the 2024 season, Cheteshwar Pujara amassed 501 runs at an incredible average of 62.62 with two half-centuries. His fine run with the bat helped the team immensely in the championship as they are at the top of the Championship Division Two points table with five wins, one loss and three draws from nine matches.
Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace has spoken about releasing Cheteshwar Pujara and said it won’t be an easy task but admitted that Dan Hughes has been top class for them and they have confidence in the batsman. In an official statement, he said:
“Replacing Cheteshwar is no easy task but Dan has settled in brilliantly and we are delighted that he will be back for the full season ahead. Dan has been first class for us on and off the field. He has brought a wealth of experience to the dressing room and has greatly helped some of our young batsmen develop their game.”
Cheteshwar Pujara unlikely to return to India
Cheteshwar Pujara’s career seems to be going downhill now as there are very few chances of him ever being a regular for India. The right-hander was also not called up for the 2024 Duleep Trophy, which does give a clear idea about his future.
India has a lot of Tests lined up now, and the most important one is the five-match Test series in Australia. Pujara was the main reason why India won the last two Test series in Australia. He was the Player of the Series in India’s historic 2018/19 series win in Australia, where he scored 521 runs in four Tests at an average of 74.42. In the next series, he was the rock of the Indian team in batting.
He last played for India in the final of the 2023 ICC World Test Championship. He returned with scores of 14 and 27 as India suffered a 209-run defeat. The batsman was then replaced by Shubman Gill at No. 3 and given the youngster’s good performance, he is unlikely to feature in the Tests.
In total, Cheteshwar Pujara has scored 7,000 runs in 103 matches, at an average of 43.60, including 19 centuries and 35 half-centuries. It remains to be seen whether the right-hander will play for Saurashtra in the upcoming domestic season or not.
