No reason for me to believe why he can’t come back – Cheteshwar Pujara’s father

Cheteshwar Pujara’s father Arvind Pujara reckons his son can still make a comeback to the national team in the Test format. Pujara, on Friday, was dropped from India’s Test squad for the upcoming tour of the West Indies.

In fact, many cricket experts reckon that this could be the end of the road for Pujara as it will be difficult for him to return to the team. The selectors have picked youngsters like Shubman Gill, Yashavi Jaiswal, and Ruturaj Gaikwad for the Test team.

Pujara recently returned with scores of 14 and 27 in the World Test Championship final against Australia and thus could not deliver the goods in a big game, which the team lost by 209 runs.

In the last two years, Pujara scored 928 runs in 17 Test matches at an average of 32.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Arvind said: “He [Cheteshwar Pujara] is mentally very strong. I can’t comment about selection. But from what I have seen, he is batting at his best. In fact he was working hard in the nets the same day post the WI team announcement.

“He has started preparing for the Duleep Trophy and will continue playing on the county circuit. As a father and coach, there is no reason for me to believe why he can’t come back.”

After he was dropped from the West Indies tour, Pujara was seen training hard and uploaded a video of the same on his social media accounts. Pujara will be next seen in action in the Duleep Trophy.

The right-hander has all the experience under his belt and he will be determined to prove his mettle in order to return to the Test team.

India’s squad for West Indies series

Test: Rohit Sharma (Capt), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (VC), KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini.

ODI: Rohit Sharma (Capt), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (VC), Shardul Thakur, R Jadeja, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar.