Former Indian Cricketer WV Raman questioned the omission of experienced Indian batter Cheteshwar Pujara from the Indian squad for the West Indies tour. India is scheduled to play two test matches against West Indies at the start of the next World Test Championship 2023-25.

The experienced Indian batter was shown the door following his poor performance in the World Test Championship final. Cheteshwar Pujara scored only 41 runs in the two innings for the Indian team getting out cheaply in both innings and failing to make an impact for the side against mighty Australia in the final.

Speaking on Aakash Chopra’s youtube Channel, Former Indian Women’s Team Coach WV Raman expressed his concern regarding the absence of Pujara in the team, as he performed exceptionally well for the India team over the last decade and added that one bad performance in the WTC Final, worked against his favour in the West Indies series

“The problem is that they have picked four possible openers, and they have dropped Pujara, which is another bone of contention. A cricketer like Pujara has done a lot for Indian cricket, and he has been instrumental for India winning both at home and abroad on quite a few occasions.”

“He is a gritty customer. He was even elevated to vice-captaincy quite recently but a failure in the WTC final, he finds that he is left out in the cold. I think this is one decision that has not gone down well with many people, and I, personally, as well, I am not for it.” WV Raman said.

The selectors have handed maiden Test call-ups to Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad for the upcoming series. Yashasvi Jaiswal is slated to play the role of the experienced Cheteshwar Pujara in the West Indies series he did reasonably well in the 2022 Ranji Trophy.

Cheteshwar Pujara Deserves To Be Treated Properly – WV Raman

WV Raman believes that Cheteshwar Pujara deserves better treatment from the Indian selector, as he did not deserve to be dropped suddenly after playing 100 games for the country in the longer format of the game and believes he needs better treatment by the Indian team.

“He deserves to be treated properly. In the event, if they think it’s the end of Pujara, he could have been given a better exit, but that’s how things happen sometimes, and this is not the first case again. There are a lot of precedences as far as this kind of treatment is concerned.” WV Raman added

Cheteshwar Pujara was made the scapegoat for the Indian batting failure, Except for Ajinkya Rahane, entire Indian batters failed in the final against the formidable Australian bowling attack, as they failed to score runs in both innings, of which only Pujara has been dropped from the Indian squad.