Cheteshwar Pujara: Cheteshwar Pujara’s love affair with County Cricket continued as he slammed a scintillating 117 for Sussex against Somerset. The right-hand batter remained unbeaten and helped his team chase down a steep total of 318 with four wickets in hands and 11 balls to spare. The Saurashtra batter has scores of 23, 106, 56, & 117 in last four matches in the ongoing Domestic One-day Cup in England. With the latest hundred in List A, the veteran has sent a warning to BCCI selectors that he is not yet out in the scheme of things.
For the uninitiated, Pujara was dropped from the Test series against West Indies as he failed to do well in Border Gavaskar Trophy and World Test Championship (WTC) Final against Australia. In the veteran batter’s absence, Yashasvi Jaiswal grabbed his chances well and scored a maiden century on his Test debut. However, the southpaw batted at the opening role and not at the number three position – a role Puajra aced for team India.
Shubman Gill batted at number three against West Indies, but he failed to get going in three innings failing to score even one fifty. India next play a Test series against South Africa in December, and if Pujara shows good form in County cricket, then he could be in the scheme of things.
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After the superb hundred for Sussex, Pujara was quizzed during the post-match presentation about his comeback in the Indian team. The veteran was optimistic about his return and said, “Look I will try and control the things, which I can, and for me, it’s about being in the present and try to score as many runs as possible in whatever games I play.
We are not going to play any Test matches in three months, the next series is in December with South Africa. But before that, whatever First-Class games I play, I will try to score as many runs as possible.”
Can Pujara make a comeback during the South Africa series?
- Gill has failed to nail the number three spot during the West Indies series
- India are clear with their stance of sending Jaiswal as an opener and not at number three.
- For now, India do not have a solid number three batter. The only option they have is KL Rahul.
- The right-hand batter primarily is an opener, but he has batted at number three as well.
- But it is still not clear if Rahul will make it to SA series as a number three player.
- India are not looking at Shreyas Iyer as number three, so if Pujara scores runs, then he can make a comeback
