Cheteshwar Pujara gets out for a duck in Ranji Trophy clash against Mumbai
With the Ranji Trophy resuming this month, the spotlight was on India's two Test veterans, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane.
Both have had dismal outings in the recent past for the national team and their places in the Test side is under serious doubt. Fans were glued to the scorecards with Mumbai locking horns with defending champions Saurashtra in the opener.
The veterans had a contrasting start to their Ranji Trophy season. While Ajinkya Rahane hammered a century to answer his critics, Cheteshwar Pujara was out for a duck.
Saurashtra's openers added 47 runs for the first wicket in reply to Mumbai's 544/7, before the domestic giants staged a comeback. Shams Mulani broke the deadlock before Mohit Avasthi joined the party.
Pujara out for a duck! Zero, is it the end of the road for the Saurashtra veteran
The reigning champions were soon reduced to 63/4 with Mohit trapping Pujara right in front, ending his four-ball stay in the middle. Arpit Vasavada also walked back with Saurashtra being reduced to 76/5 before lunch on day 3.
The Test veteran has had a prolonged lean patch with the bat, with his last Test century coming in 2019. Since 2019, he has only managed 1480 runs in 28 Tests.
With another poor return, Cheteshwar Pujara failed to make a case for himself with the selectors likely to pick India's team for the Sri Lanka series this week.
I personally have more time for Cheteshwar Pujara than Ajinkya Rahane - Sanjay Manjrekar
The former Indian cricketer has backed Pujara to retain his Test berth for Sri Lanka series, saying it will require an unemotional selector to show him the doors.
Speaking to News18, the cricketer-turned-commentator said:
"Pujara is interesting, he's coming close to 100 Test matches. It will need a very unemotional selector to leave him out. And I personally have more time for Pujara than Rahane. This is from observing the way they bat. No other reason. I feel there is something left in Pujara, but Rahane, if I would have been the selector, would have been out of my plans two years back."
Strongly feel that regardless of the runs that Pujara Rahane score in the Ranji Trophy, the selectors should still give the likes of Vihari, Shreyas, Mayank and Gill a chance ahead of these two. The players in the waiting have come up scoring runs against the same level only.
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The 34-year-old Pujara, who is under the scanner, is likely to get one last opportunity against Sri Lanka to save his place in the red-ball format.
Overall, he has played 95 matches, scoring 6713 runs at an average of 43.87, including 18 centuries and 32 fifties.