[Watch] "Love Laughter Chocolates" - Cheteshwar Pujara enjoys a trip with family
Indian Test specialist batter Cheteshwar Pujara recently enjoyed a relaxing vacation with his family during his off time from the field. He last played a Test match during the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final against Australia in London, where India lost comprehensively by 209 runs.
Pujara did not have a great outing with the bat, as he scored 14 and 27 in both innings of the match. His place in the Test side has been under scrutiny for a while now due to his diminishing returns over the past few years.
Across 26 matches in the last three years, Pujara scored 1355 runs at an average of 30.11, including a solitary century. The selectors finally decided to move on after the WTC final and dropped him for the subsequent West Indies by replacing him with young Yashasvi Jaiswal.
After the snub, the 35-year-old went back to domestic cricket and represented West Zone in Duleep Trophy and performed decently.
He took to his official Instagram handle on Saturday (July 29) to give his fans a glimpse of his personal life by sharing a reel where he can be seen enjoying a trip with his family. He captioned the post:
Love ❤️ Laughter 😄 Chocolates 🍫 Family 👨👩👧 #latergram
You can watch Pujara's reel below:
"Will be difficult for Cheteshwar Pujara to make a comeback into the Indian team"- Wasim Jaffer
Former Indian batter Wasim Jaffer recently played down the chances of Cheteshwar Pujara's comeback into the Indian Test team in the new WTC cycle. India reached the finals of the last two WTC cycles but lost in both finals in 2021 and 2023.
The selectors opted for fresh faces like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad in the squad for the West Indies Tests, which kicked off their campaign in WTC 2023-25. In a media interaction during India's Test series against West Indies, Jaffer gave his views on Pujara's exclusion, saying:
"I feel it will be difficult for Cheteshwar Pujara to make a comeback into the Indian team going forward. You have to look forward to younger players and fresh faces in the new World Test Championship cycle.
He added:
"Shreyas Iyer will come back and possibly Rishabh Pant will too at some point. Now you have Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill as well. So I feel it will be difficult for Pujara to make a comeback. It is a dream start for Yashasvi and I feel he is on the right track. I have known him since 2013-14 but the way he has progressed in the past one-and-a-half years, it has been phenomenal."
Do you think Pujara can make a comeback in Tests? Sound off in the comments section.