Was Pujara unfortunate to be dropped? A look at his performance in Tests in last one year

The Indian cricket team didn't have a nice outing against Australia in the World Test Championship 2023 Final and lost the match by 209 runs. This was the team's eighth loss in an ICC knockout match in the last ten years. However, Team India will face West Indies in their next challenge and a lot of new faces have been included in the 16-member Test squad. In a surprising move, the selection committee of the Indian team decided to drop senior team batsman Cheteshwar Pujara from the Test squad due to his poor performance in the WTC Final against the Aussies. 

3 things you need to know 

• Team India lost its second consecutive WTC Final
• The Indian team lost to New Zealand in the first edition of the World Test Championship 
• Team India will tour West Indies for a two-match Test series followed by ODI and T20I series in the month of July

The Indian batting lineup miserably failed in the World Test Championship 2023 Final and top names like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were not able to leave any impression with their performance. The Aussies had posted a solid first innings total and the Indian team needed some solid batting effort to make a comeback in the match. 

Dropping Pujara from the Test team to solve India's batting woes? 

Cheteshwar Pujara aka the new 'wall' of Team India failed to score in the WTC 2023 Final and also got out playing an aggressive shot, very unlikely of him in the second innings. Pujara came up with scores of 14 and 27 in both innings and couldn't contribute much to the team's cause in both innings. 

While Cheteshwar Pujara has been dropped from the Test squad for the upcoming Test series against West Indies, it will be very unfair to him as he was not the only one who failed in the WTC 2023 Final. India's skipper Rohit Sharma has not been able to achieve any big score in the recent past apart from the hundred against Australia in Nagpur.

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Virat Kohli is also struggling in Tests for a long time and has only hit one century in Tests in the last six months. Ajinkya Rahane who was included in the team on the basis of his performance in the Indian Premier League performed and now has been made the vice-captain of the team for the West Indies tour. 

Cheteshwar Pujara's numbers in Tests

The right-handed Indian batsman has played a total of 103 Tests and has made 7195 runs at an average of 43.60. Pujara has hit a total of 19 hundreds and 35 half-centuries in his whole Test career. His tactics helped him a lot in Test cricket but his recent failures has raised many eyebrows on him and on his techniques.

READ MORE | ODI World Cup: PCB's demand squashed by ICC, India will play Pakistan in Ahmedabad

If we look at Cheteshwar Pujara's numbers in the last 12 months, he was the team's second-highest run scorer after Virat Kohli in the WTC 2021-2023 cycle and had scored 928 runs from 17 games at an average of 32.00 and his highest score was 103*.  Team India will take on West Indies in a two-match Test series starting from July 12, 2023. This will also be the start of Team India's journey in the new cycle of the World Test Championship 2023-2025.