The last time Cheteshwar Pujara played a Test match for India was in the final of the WTC 2023 at The Oval in London. The defeat was the last time he represented India in the longest format.

The veteran of 103 Test matches for India was a regular in the Indian batting order till the last World Test Championship campaign. However, as India looks to the future, players like Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were ruled out of the Indian Test squad.

Ahead of another important season of Test cricket for India, former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali has opened up the debate on Pujara’s call-up to the team. He had earlier spoken about why Pujara was not picked for the 2024 Duleep Trophy. Basit opined that Pujara would have been a useful batsman for the 2024-25 tour of Australia had he remained in contention for a place in the Test squad.

On Wednesday, August 14, the BCCI named the four teams for the first round of the 2024 Duleep Trophy, which will be played from September 5. Apart from Cheteshwar Pujara, there was no place for players like Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson and Rinku Singh in the squads.

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Meanwhile, in a video shared on Hafiz Muhammad Imran’s YouTube channel, the former Pakistan batsman warned India, saying that their batting line-up will look very weak in Australia, especially with the absence of Cheteshwar Pujara.

He further said that without Cheteshwar Pujara, the Indian batting would be heavily dependent on the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to score runs against Australia.

Against Australia, Cheteshwar Pujara has good numbers of scoring 2074 runs in 25 Test matches at an average of 49.38 with five hundreds and 11 fifties.

Basit Ali backs Cheteshwar Pujara’s selection for Australia tour

“Not picking players like Pujara and Rahane in the Duleep Trophy squads is a sign that had they performed well, they would have been eligible to be considered for the home Test series against Bangladesh and New Zealand and also Australia,” said 53-year-old Basit Ali.

“Without Cheteshwar Pujara, India’s batting line-up will face problems in Australia. If Pujara travels with the team, India has a good chance of winning the series and completing a treble. If he doesn’t go to Australia, India’s batting will be heavily dependent on the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli,” Basit Ali added.

India won the last two Test series in Australia in 2019-20 and 2020-21. They now have a chance to register a hat-trick of wins against Australia. Gautam Gambhir and the new support staff will be challenged to select a team that can stand up to Australia’s pace bowlers. Australia’s pace trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood are expected to be a problem for the Indian batsmen in home conditions.

India play Test matches against Bangladesh and New Zealand at home before travelling to Australia to get a chance to boost their WTC points tally and widen the points gap between them and Australia. As of now, India tops the WTC points table, followed by Australia.

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