High-flying Team India will conclude their campaign in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship with a five-match Test. series in Australia.
The Rohit Sharma-the leading side will play a three-match Test series at home against New Zealand before traveling to Australia. The five-match Test series will begin in Perth on November 22. India will have the opportunity to become only the second team to win three Test series in Australia this century.
India have won the last two Test series on Australian soil and will look to extend their winning streak. But in his absence, it might not be that easy for the Indian team Cheteshwar Pujara. The unpopular batsman played a major role in India’s victory in both the series.
In the 2018/19 series, he became the highest run-scorer as India won the first Test series in Australia. In 4 Tests, the right-handed batsman scored 521 runs with the help of three centuries and a fifty. He was the only batsman to score more than 350 runs in that series.
Shane Watson on India missing Cheteshwar Pujara:
In that 2020–21 series, Pujara again starred with the bat. He finished the streak as the fourth leading scorer. In 4 Tests, he scored 271 runs with the help of three half-centuries. With Pujara not a part of the Test squad and unlikely to be picked in the squad anytime soon, Team India will have their assignments cut short against Australia.
However, the former Australian allrounder Shane Watson Believes India will not miss Pujara’s services too much. Shane Watson said young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal will fill the gap left by Pujara. Shane Watson said that while Pujara was not wrong, Jaiswal was not far behind in that respect.
“When you talk about Pujara (that) he just doesn’t make mistakes. You’ve seen a lot of these incredible knocks for India, top-class batsmen like (Yashasvi) Jaiswal, he made a lot of quick runs but he didn’t make mistakes,” Shane Watson PTI- said to
“He hasn’t really given the opposition a chance to get him out. If those kind of batsmen come out to Australia and play aggressively, put the bad balls away and put pressure on the Aussie bowlers, then they can still have the same impact and they keep the game moving.
“With the caliber of batting that India have got and the skills they have, there’s no reason why they can’t put it together, put pressure on the bowlers, score quickly but also make no mistakes,” Shane Watson said.
Jaiswal made his Test debut last year and has been an integral part of the team ever since. So far, he has scored 1217 runs in 11 Tests with the help of three centuries and seven half-centuries.
