India Collects This Instruction From World Cup Winner To Tackle Australia Bowlers In BGT 2024-25

The former opener and wicket-keeper batter for India, Robin Uthappa, suggested that the Rohit Sharma-led side should have included Cheteshwar Pujara for the five-match red-ball series in Australia for the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, which is scheduled to begin on November 22 at the Optus Stadium in Perth.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has recently declared their squad for the upcoming series, where both Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have been omitted from the squad for the very first time since the 2014/15 series. The former has played the last of his 103 red-ball games against the Pat Cummins-led side during the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23, as was the case with Rahane.

The Saurashtra batter has notched up 993 runs in 21 innings at an average of 47.29, shouldering on three centuries and five half-centuries at a best score of 193. The Mumbai-batter, on the other hand, has grabbed 884 runs down under in 23 Test innings at an average of 42.10 and a strike rate of 53.48, with the help of four half-centuries and two centuries.

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India has struggled at home against the spinners in their recent 0-3 clean sweep against the New Zealand side, and that has raised the question if the management can think of bringing back those two veterans in the squad.

Robin Uthappa wants India to pay attention to defensive batters for BGT 2024-25

Virat Kohli, with his incredible record in these pace and bouncy conditions with an average of over 53, will walk out at number four in the batting order after Shubman Gill was slotted at third place in the department.

The winning member of the 2007 ICC T20 World Cup campaign, Uthappa has suggested that India, for a long time, has paid attention to the aggressive batters. But they could now think of giving more respect to their defensive batters, as he namedropped Kane Williamson, Rahul Dravid, and Pujara.

“There is still a place for a player like Cheteshwar Pujara. According to me, a place for him will have to be made in this team as soon as possible. It’s a need.” The former opener of India claimed during a video on his YouTube channel.

“We have mostly aggressive batters from No. 1 to No. 6. We need someone like Cheteshwar Pujara, Rahul Dravid, Kane Williamson and Will Young. We always need someone who can become an anchor and hold one end up, and all the other batters can bat around him.” The wicket-keeper batter from Kerala commented.

When India won their second consecutive series down under, Pujara was the fourth leading run-getter of the series with 271 runs at an average of 33.87 with the help of three half-centuries. During the 2018/19 summer, the number three batter was the leading run-getter in four Tests with 521 runs in seven innings at an average of 74.42 and a strike rate of over 04 with the help of three centuries and one half-century.

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One of the reasons for the visiting bowlers to remain fresh for the entire series in 2018/19 was how Pujara stayed in the middle for such a long period of time, and by the time they reached Sydney for the final game of the series, the home paces were burnt out mentally and physically.

The opening game of the upcoming series for India starts on November 22 at the Optus Stadium in Perth.