India’s high-flying team will end its campaign in the current cycle of the ICC World Test Championship with a bumper five-match Test series in Australia.
The Rohit Sharma-led team will play a three-match Test series against New Zealand at home before leaving for Australia. The five-match Test series will begin on November 22 in Perth. India will have a chance to become the second team this century to win three Test series in Australia.
India have won their last two Test series on Australian soil and will look to extend their winning streak. However, it may not be so easy for the Indian team without Cheteshwar Pujara. The disgraced batsman had played a huge role in both the series wins for India.
In the 2018/19 series, he was the top scorer as India won their first Test series in Australia. In 4 Tests, the right-handed batsman had scored 521 runs with the help of three centuries and fifties. He was the only batsman to score more than 350 runs in that series.
Shane Watson on Cheteshwar Pujara’s absence in India:
In that 2020-21 series, Pujara once again starred with the bat. He finished the series as the fourth leading run scorer. In 4 Tests, he scored 271 runs with the help of three half-centuries. Since Pujara is not part of the Test squad and is unlikely to be picked in the squad anytime soon, Team India will have its task cut out against Australia.
However, former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson believes that India will not miss Pujara’s services much. Shane Watson said young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal will fill the void left by Pujara. Shane Watson said that while Pujara doesn’t make any mistakes, Jaiswal is no slouch in that regard.
“When you talk about Pujara it’s that he just doesn’t make a mistake. While you’ve seen a lot of these incredible batsmen for India, top-order batsmen like (Yashasvi) Jaiswal, he’s scored runs very quickly. But he hasn’t made any mistakes. mistake,” Shane Watson told PTI.
“It hasn’t really given the opposition a chance to get him out. If those kind of batsmen come to Australia and play aggressively, put away bad balls and put pressure on the Australian bowlers, then they can still have the same effect and also keep the game going. motion.
“With the caliber of batsmen that India have and the skill that they have, there’s no reason why they can’t combine that, put pressure on the bowlers, score quickly but also not make mistakes,” Shane Watson added.
Jaiswal made his Test debut last year and has been an integral member of the team ever since. So far, he has scored 1217 runs in 11 Tests with the help of three centuries and seven half-centuries.