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After facing a lot of flak from the fans, experts of the game, and the former cricketers, the Indian Cricket Board has probably come up with a justification for Cheteshwar Pujara's omission. Notably, the selectors happened to overlook the veteran number 3 batter from the Test squad for the West Indies tour.
Now, a media report has understood that Pujara has been informed that new players will be given a chance in the squad of the national side.
“It is understood that Pujara, who has played more than 100 Tests (103), has been informed that new players will be given an opportunity. Whether the conversation had any influence on his decision to play in the Duleep Trophy is not clear,” reads a report by Cricbuzz.
It also states further that Pujara will be available for selection in the squad of West Zone for the upcoming edition of the domestic cricket tournament Duleep Trophy.
Meanwhile, this entire episode and ‘Pujara has been informed’ fact didn’t go down well with a wider section of Indian cricket fans. They didn’t look happy with the attitude of the Indian management with a player like Pujara who served the country in more than 100 Tests. Fans immediately took to the micro-blogging site Twitter and blasted the Indian Cricket Board for keeping all other senior players in the squad and dropping Pujara for the sake of a ‘chance to new players
Here’s how fans reacted:
abey toh bakio ko bhi nikalo
— Eren Jaegar (@ANK_KKR) June 24, 2023
He is the new Saha
— Akash Mohan (@aakashmn1) June 24, 2023
Sarfaraz toh 60 saal ka hai na? :) woh ''new'' thodi hai.
— Michan (@Mii_chaannnn) June 24, 2023
Saha to Pujara - First Time ?😅 pic.twitter.com/SlwI6nhMKS
— Cricpedia. (@_Cricpedia) June 24, 2023
Thank You Pujara 🙏
— KP (@apwaadi) June 24, 2023
Damage control excercise by BCCI after Sunny Gavaskar criticised Dropping of Pujara.
— Barkha Joshi (@bindasbarkha) June 24, 2023
New players like Rohit, Virat snd Rahane?
— Sanjay Verma 💜💙 (@Surgeonsanj) June 24, 2023
Kohli and Rohit should have been informed the same too.
— Shahnad Chaudhary (@Sameer2490) June 24, 2023
Indirectly he has been asked to retire 🫣
— Srikant M (@SrikantM15) June 24, 2023
and what about the guy averaging 29 in the last 3 years but just gettin picked coz 250M followers and fanbase and pr
— Ayan_Manoj_1610 (@insane_16_cric) June 24, 2023
This is unfair
— N A G U (@naguambale) June 24, 2023
Time to inform Rohit too. Let Rahane/Ashwin take charge till Pant is back.
— Shaunak (@shaun_ak) June 24, 2023
Earlier, the former legendary Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar was also of a very high critical opinion for the Indian selectors for dropping Pujara.
"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 are the criteria for dropping him and keeping the others who failed? I do not know because nowadays, there is no media interaction with the selection committee chairman,” said Gavaskar to Sports Today.