Mohammad Kaif, a retired Indian cricketer, has showered admiration on Cheteshwar Pujara for his quick return to the Indian Test squad. The experienced batsman was benched for India’s most recent test series against Sri Lanka, but he is now back in the lineup for the test match against England that was postponed.
Since January 2019, the 34-year-old Test specialist has been without a century, and as a result of his subpar play, he was dropped from the Indian squad after the South Africa series in January 2022. He returned to Saurashtra, his home side, and in three Ranji Trophy 2022 games, he hit two fifty-plus scores. The player traveled to England to play county cricket for Sussex after failing to find a buyer in the mega-auction for the Indian Premier League 2022 in February.
For India, Cheteshwar Pujara has excelled as a player: Mohammad Kaif
Pujara had a very productive tenure with Sussex, scoring 720 runs at an outstanding average of 120.0 in only eight innings. Kaif recommended young people take inspiration from Pujara’s work ethic and decisions made after being dropped from the national team. Additionally, he thinks that the seasoned player would bat at position three in the forthcoming Test match against England on July 1.
“Pujara is a wealth of knowledge. What should a batter do if he is dropped? You return to County and Ranji and score gobs and tons of runs, by which I mean runs and runs. He already did it. He serves as an example of how to rebound for any young player who has been benched. You should probably revisit Pujara and see what he has accomplished over the last several months. He has also been an outstanding player for India. And I believe he’ll play No. 3 for India,” Kaif said to NDTV.
Ajinkya Rahane, Pujara’s middle-order partner, was dropped in the South Africa series and will not be traveling to England due to an injury sustained while competing for KKR in the IPL 2022 last month. He participated in the Ranji Trophy in 2022 as well, and in only four innings, he made a statement by scoring a century and a fifty.
