Former Indian National Cricket team skipper Anil Kumble feels Cheteshwar Pujara should have been a part of this edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Meanwhile, Pujara last played in IPL during the 2014 season for the Kings XI Punjab.
Over the years, Cheteshwar Pujara has got the tag of a Test specialist with spectacular batting in the five-day format. However, he is an able batsman in the limited overs format as well. He boasts an average of 54.20 in List A cricket scoring 4445 runs from 103 games. The Saurashtra cricketer also has 11 centuries and 29 half-centuries to his name. He started his IPL campaign with the Kolkata Knight Riders and then moved to Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2011 edition. However, he suffered an injury and was out of action from most part of the tournament. In 2012 and 2013, Pujara was a part of the RCB playing only seven games in the two seasons.
Pujara should be a part of IPL
Cheteshwar Pujara joined Kings XI Punjab in 2014 and opened the innings alongside Virender Sehwag. He played the first six games of the season scoring 125 runs with the highest score of 25. Since then, he has not been a part of the cash-rich league. But former India coach Anil Kumble feels Pujara and Ishant Sharma have the quality to perform in the shortest format of the game. While Delhi Capitals roped the services of Ishant Sharma in the IPL auction, Pujara remained unsold. The leg-spinner also added it is unfortunate that they miss out a deal.
“Ishant has both the skills and the confidence. He has done extremely well in Test cricket in the recent past and deserves a place in the IPL. It is unfortunate that some players miss out,” Kumble said.
“Test players who are playing for India like Ishant and Pujara as well should be a part of the league. I am glad that Ishant finally got a chance to play and is doing really well,” he added.