IND vs WI Series: Sunil Gavaskar FURIOUS at selectors for dropping Pujara, says 'he has been made scapegoat'

Former India captain and commentator Sunil Gavaskar is furious over the decision of the selector's panel of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after they announced the squad for the West Indies tour on Friday, June 23. Much to the surprise of everyone, veteran star Cheteshwar Pujara won’t be boarding the flight to the Caribbean islands next month as the selectors made a bold choice by picking uncapped youngsters like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal. According to Gavaskar, Pujara has been the victim of other batters’ failures and should have been given an opportunity for the tour.

Gavaskar fumes at selectors

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"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 said in an interview.

Pujara, 35, was dropped in favour of young and upcoming talents like Ruturaj and Jaiswal, but Gavaskar was critical of the selectors. While the attention was on the future, the selectors did not even pickup Sarfaraz Khan, who has been in red-hot form in the domestic circuit. He has been made to wait further for his international debut.

The Saurashtra batter on the other hand had a poor World Test Championship (WTC) final at the Oval earlier this month. Despite spending the majority of the time in English conditions, the veteran batter only contributed an aggregate of 41 runs. While he was no way near his best in the WTC final, Gavaskar thinks he was not the batter who had failed miserably.

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Pujara not the only failure

"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.

The Indian team will begin its quest for glory in the Caribbean Islands on July 12 as they will look to start the next WTC campaign on a high. Rohit Sharma, despite in a poor run of form, will lead the team while Ajinkya Rahane has been named as the deputy to his fellow Mumbaikar.

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