Team India has been at the receiving end of a series loss at the hands of a weakened South African Team. A major reason for this is the underperforming middle-order. In this article, we take a look at Sunil Gavaskar’s opinion on the potential replacements for Pujara and Rahane in Team India.
Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara could lose their spots
For a long time, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara have survived in the Indian Team despite performing poorly. Against the opinions of many, they were selected for the tour of South Africa. Considering they were under the pump, many expected them to do well. However, the experienced duo failed again. They failed to actually put up a convincing show throughout the series. Hence, they could be dropped going forward.
Gavaskar names likely replacements for Pujara and Rahane
India’s next Test assignment will be in the month of February against Sri Lanka. It will be a good opportunity for the management to try out a few options in the middle-order. Sunil Gavaskar, while speaking on air in the Test series against South Africa spoke on the same.
He gave out his opinion on who could replace Pujara and Rahane in the XI. The legendary Indian cricketer said, “I think both Pujara and Rahane will be dropped from the team for the Sri Lanka series. Iyer and Vihari will both play. We’ll have to see who plays at no.3. Hanuma Vihari may take Pujara’s place and Shreyas Iyer could be no.5 in place of Rahane, but we will have to see. Nevertheless, I think there will certainly be two spots up for grabs against Sri Lanka.”
Apart from Pujara and Rahane, the likes of Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav are also certain to be a part of the setup. As it stands right now, both Pujara and Rahane could be axed from the squad.
