'There are others as well who play in that same team and...' - Harbhajan Singh indirectly slams Virat Kohli while backing Cheteshwar Pujara in Tests for India

Former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has made a bold judgement on the team selection process for the past few weeks. He felt that the veteran Test specialist batter Cheteshwar Pujara should have been in the Indian squad for the Tests series against the West Indies.

Singh criticized the criteria of dropping only Cheteshwar Pujara from the squad after India’s failure in the World Test Championship 2023 final against Australia. He went on to take a dig at the poor performance of the other senior Indian players, including the likes of the former skipper Virat Kohli and current skipper Rohit Sharma.

The former World Cup-winning bowler said that it was not only Pujara who failed to deliver in the title clash of the WTC 2023 final against Australia. "I have a lot of respect for Chesteshwar Pujara for what he has achieved. He has been an unsung hero of the Indian team for many years now. He has been one of those pillars of strength for India, doing the dirty work of hanging in there, making sure other batters got their comfort," said Harbhajan Singh to PTI.

"I believe he needs to be given a bit more respect than what he has been given and the way he was chucked out of the team was a surprise for me. Because he isn't the only one not scoring runs. There are others as well who play in that same team who are scoring runs at same average," he added later while indicating the ‘not so impressive’ batting performances of the other senior Indian players like Virat Kohli.

Here's what Harbhajan Singh said further for Cheteshwar Pujara

The 43-year-old stressed the fact that India still needs Cheteshwar Pujara in red-ball cricket when it’s about trusting an individual to provide stability on number three.

"In the case of Pujara, we keep hearing about his strike rate of scoring runs in Tests but because of that strike rate, the wickets remain intact and that's a huge contribution. So you have to see which guy is contributing what. You need to see how much the team needs him. In my opinion, the team still needs him. When you go abroad (SENA countries), you need one such batter as you can't have everyone playing strokes all the time. You need someone who plays normal Test cricket, just like Chesteshwar Pujara," he concluded.