Cheteshwar Pujara is not included in playing XI for India. (Source: Reuters)
India decided to keep batsman Cheteshwar Puajra on the sidelines for the first Test against England at Edgbaston. The right-hand batsman was not included in the playing XI, while KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan and Ainkya Rahane found a place for themselves in the team. Pujara had a tough county season for Yorkshire in the summer, in which he failed to perform with the bat. He also failed to perform in the one-off Test against Afghanistan, scoring just 35 runs. He also could not perform in the practice Test against Essex, in which he was dismissed for 1 and 23.
KL Rahul, who had a fantastic IPL season, followed by a good limited-overs series against England, in which he scored a T20I century, made it into India’s playing XI. Rahul had also scored a half-century against Afghanistan in the one-off Test against Afghanistan, which may have prompted skipper Virat Kohli to bring him into the side. But with Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan also included in the team, it remains to be seen at which position the 26-year-old will come out to bat.
Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik, and Kohli fill up the remaining middle-order for India. In bowling, Kohli decided to stick with Ravichandran Ashwin and sat out Kuldeep Yadav. Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, and Ishant Sharma also found themselves in the playing XI along with Hardik Pandya as the fourth seamer.
Pujara’s exclusion from the first Test came as a surprise despite his floundering form in recent times. The 30-year old is regarded as one of the best overseas Test batsmen for India. In 58 Tests, he has scored 4,531 runs at an average of 50.34 with 14 hundreds to his name. He has earlier played 5 Tests in England in which he scored 222 runs at an average of 22.20, which leaves a lot asking as compared to his incredible overall statistics.