Cheteshwar Pujara - A vital cog in Indian batting line-up
Virat Kohli was looking understandably forlorn at the end of the first Test against England in Edgbaston. He did the customary handshakes with the English players and support staff, and Dinesh Karthik patted on his back so as to say “Well done skipper”, to hail Kohli's brave-heart effort with the bat.
Entire Indian batting in this Test was an ‘exclusive King Kohli show’ who almost single-handedly brought them to sniffing distance of winning the first Test of a series in England, in over three decades since back in 1986, when many of the current squad members were not even born.
Kohli fought valiantly himself on the ground, but why India lost the match had more to do with his off-field decisions than on-field ones.
It is high time Virat allows his batting line-up to settle and make up his mind on who are his go-to-batsmen in overseas conditions outside the subcontinent, particularly in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and England. He hasn’t done that yet and still seems to be groping for answers. Once he decides, he needs to give them a long haul and then think about chopping and changing.
Have a quick view of how performances of the Indian batters look in these countries at the end of 1st Test:
And this is how current Indian batting stats in England look after 1st Test which includes their last tour:
Dropping India’s Test specialist at No. 3, just because of an underwhelming county season and lack of runs in a single practice match, needs some explaining. He still proudly boasts of a 50+ average in Test cricket in well over 50 matches (avg 50.34 in 58 matches), with the rest of the batsmen having their career averages at early 40s, other than the captain. His contribution to India's rise to the top of Test rankings has been no less than any other member of the team, and it certainly needs some doing from other batters to displace him off the playing XI.
More interestingly, Rahul, the opener, who made his mark in the preceding limited-overs series, was played at No. 3 position; whereas Shikhar Dhawan retained his place as an opener, despite having serious questions raised on him and his technique. Pujara was just about coming to his own with more than a run-a-ball county century (101 in 94 balls) in the Royal London One-Day Cup against Worcestershire. Although he managed a meager 14.23 average in 12 innings for Yorkshire at the end, he had pretty successful three earlier county stints (averaging over 50 in 2014 and 2015).
The point is Pujara at least made the effort to go to England and play the county season in tough early season conditions to hone his skills there, while his teammates plied their trade on placid pitches in IPL.
It is like punishing an aspirant who is preparing for the main exams by not allowing him to sit for it, just because he has not scored enough in his initial mock tests, and rather allowing those who haven't even bothered to prepare.
The result was India virtually played with three openers with its mainstay in the middle order missing.
Kohli and the team management did such selection blunders in South Africa which cost them the series and they are doing it here again. It is no secret why Kumble had to lose his job, he was interfering in the captain's choices and Kohli needed a Shastri to comfortably work with. Notably, Kohli was reluctant to play a debutant in Kuldeep Yadav in the Australia series at home where Kumble overruled him and the rest is history with India winning the final Test of the series with Kuldeep's first innings heroics with the ball.
It is true that cricket is a game where the captain calls the shots both on and off the field but the role of coach/manager/team director is merely not limited to being a 'Yes Man' to captain and showering superlatives on him.
Virat publicly made an issue about Pujara’s strike rate when he accommodated Rohit Sharma in place of him in West Indies, emphasizing the need to score quick runs to push for victory. But then again, he himself admitted later that Test cricket is not about swashbuckling batting but holding one end together, grinding it out, seeing off hostile spells and building partnerships, which Cheteshwar himself is a master of.
The pressure was so much so on Pujara that the poor guy was run out twice in a Test in South Africa thereby earning a dubious distinction, just to keep up the pace and meet the demands of his captain.
Time and again, he was unceremoniously dropped, twice losing his place to one Rohit Sharma whose limited over heroics and strike rate seemed to be banked upon more than his true credentials as a Test batsman, and who eventually finds no more a place in the Test squad, with both the selectors and the team management running out of patience on his 'unfulfilled potential'.
One would remember how Pujara came back with a reassuring 145 in a winning cause as an opener in the absence of both Dhawan and Vijay due to injury, to seal the series for India in Sri Lanka, thereby adding an important feather in Captain Virat's cap, his first overseas Test series victory.
It would not be harsh to suspect that Virat has a soft corner for his settled limited over teammates and the likes of Pujara, Rahane become easy targets at the drop of a hat. They are the two reticent fellows who are among the exceptions in a dressing room, which is otherwise full of flamboyance with its on-your-face young generation, and who prefer to push their case more with tongue than the bat.
It is to be noted here that Kumble during his stint as coach expressed words of reassurance and confidence in Pujara’s style of play and his place in the line-up, which bore fruits with him contributing handsomely during that period.
As Mr Gavaskar correctly pointed out in an interview recently, there was no reason to fiddle with your batting lineup in the first Test of such an important series when you are not even going with seven specialist batsmen and instead opting for Hardik Pandya who is yet to excel in his all-rounder role in red ball cricket.
The result was for everyone to see with Kohli contributing more than half of what the team managed to score in two innings and both Hardik and Dhawan coming croppers. The only saving grace was Ashwin, chosen ahead of Kuldeep Yadav (highest Indian wicket-taker in the limited over series) in the lone spinner role, who performed admirably with the ball, but there were obvious errors of judgment in selection of the final XI.
We hope that good sense prevails and Pujara is called back sooner than later, with possibly Rahul and Vijay at the top, and we await a yet another unattractive, old-style, but gritty display from the man from Saurashtra to announce his reassuring presence in Indian Test Team.