Cheteshwar Pujara’s form has gone downhill after the Australia series where he stood like a wall and took blows on his body for his country and ensured India won the series against Australia for the second time in a row. Beating Australia once is difficult but India managed it twice specially this year when Australia had David Warner and Steven Smith back and so were all their fast bowlers. Pujara defied all the Aussie bowlers in Pat Cummins, Hazelwood, Starc and Nathan Lyon and held one end up and tired them all for the likes of Shubman Gill and Rishab Pant to attack them.
But since the Pujara has lost his form and questions are being asked about his place in the team. After the Australia series, Pujara played four test matches at home against England and managed just 133 runs at an average of just 22 and in the World Test Championship finals against New Zealand he had scores of just 8 and 15 in the two innings. He did find some form in the England series by show some intent and scoring two half centuries but a hundred has eluded him from 2019 January.
Skipper Virat Kohli had backed Pujara and had said a player of Cheteshwar Pujara should be left alone as he knows what are his drawbacks. His bad form as continued in the current series too with scores of 26 and 22 in the first Test at Kanpur and the fans are asking him to be replaced by Suryakumar Yadav who has been waiting in the wings. No matter what Kohli says, the runs have dried up from the bat of the Wall of India and cracks seems to be visible and its time Pujara silences his critics in the second test match at Mumbai before the big series of South Africa.
