Ignored For Windies Tour, Cheteshwar Pujara To Replace Yashasvi, Ruturaj For THIS Tournament

Cheteshwar Pujara and Suryakumar Yadav have reportedly been included in West Zone team as Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad's replacement.

Cheteshwar Pujara struggled for runs in the final match of the World Test Championship (WTC 2023 Final) between India and Australia.

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Cheteshwar Pujara in Duleep Trophy 2023: Dropped by the Board of Control for Cricket in India for two-match Test series against West Indies, veteran Cheteshwar Pujara Cheteshwar Pujara will play for West Zone in Duleep Trophy 2023, Times Of India reported. The report also suggests that Suryakumar Yadav, who also failed to make the cut for India's Test team, joins Pujara in West Zone team. Pujara and Suryakumar have reportedly been included in West Zone team as Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad's replacement. West Zone will play their first match in Duleep Trophy from July 5.

Cheteshwar Pujara struggled for runs in the final match of the World Test Championship (WTC 2023 Final) between India and Australia. In the first innings of IND vsAUS WTC Final, Pujara scored 14 runs off 25 balls and 27 runs off 47 balls in second innings. His lacklustorous outing in WTC Final, prolonged lean patch in red-ball format resulted in Shiv Sundar Das-led committee dropping him from the Indian Test team for West Indies tour in July.

"The selectors and the coach (Rahul Dravid) wanted to try out youngsters like Jaiswal and Gaikwad, which is why Pujara has not been picked for this tour. If he scores runs in domestic cricket, the doors are not closed on him, and that has been communicated to him," a reliable source told TOI.

Cheteshwar Pujara, who made his Test debut in October 2010, has so far played 103 Tests. Batting in 176 innings of these 103 Tests, the Test specialist has scored 7195 runs at an average of 43.61 with help of 19 centuries and 35 half-centuries, including 3 remarkable double centuries and a personal best score of 206 runs.

Apart from Test, Pujara has so far featured in 5 ODIs, in which he scored 390 runs at an average of 20.53 with one half-century.