Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said that veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara has been unfairly targeted and dropped for the tour of West Indies after India's batting failure in the WTC Final against Australia. "Why has he been dropped? Why has he been made the scapegoat for our batting failures.
He has been a loyal servant of Indian cricket. A loyal and quiet servant. A loyal and quiet achiever. But because he does not have millions of followers on platforms who will make a noise in case he gets dropped, you drop him.
"That is something beyond understanding. What is the criteria of dropping him and keeping the others who failed? I do not know because nowadays, there is no media interaction with the selection committee chairman," Gavaskar told Sports Today.
Gavaskar believes that Pujara should not be dropped from the Indian Test team simply because of his age. "He has been playing country cricket. So, he has played a lot of red-call cricket and he knows what it is about.
Today, people can play till they are 39-40 years old and as long as you are producing runs, I do not think age should be a factor. Apart from (Ajinkya) Rahane, the batting completely failed.
Why Pujara has been made the fall guy is something the selectors will have to explain," he added.