• Home
  • Cricket News
  • Duleep Trophy Semis Cheteshwar Pujara Roars Back With A Century After Omission From Test Squad

Duleep Trophy Semis: Cheteshwar Pujara Roars Back With A Century After Omission From Test Squad

image-ljsarn62Cheteshwar Pujara was left out of Indian Test Squad After WTC Final. [Twitter]

Indian Test batter Cheteshwar Pujara scored a terrific century for West Zone on Day 3 of the ongoing Duleep Trophy Semi Final against Central Zone in Alur. The Indian Test veteran number three was dropped from the recently announced Indian Test squad for the two-match Test series against West Indies.

Pujara lost his place in the Test squad for the second time in the last 18 months after failing to make much of an impact with the bat in India’s loss against Australia in the recently concluded World Test Championship Final in June.

However, Pujara let his bat do the talking as he scored a terrific century in the second innings of the Duleep Trophy Semi-Final against Central Zone. Starting the day on 50, Pujara looked untroubled throughout as if he was batting on a different surface. The Central Zone bowlers were taking wickets regularly at the other end but failed to pose any challenge to Pujara.

Pujara went on to complete his century after lunch with West Zone clearly on the driving seat with a lead over 350. This is Pujara’s 60th first-class century which is now joint 4th highest by an Indian, equaling the legendary Vijay Hazare. In addition, it was his third century in Duleep Trophy (first for West Zone) and the Indian veteran looks all set to make a big statement after his omission from the national side.

It is a competent bowling attack of Central Zone and Pujara did make a gritty 102-ball 28 in the first innings as well under difficult circumstances. Later, West Zone bowlers did a fantastic job as they bowled out Central Zone for a paltry 128 in their first innings and earned a hefty first innings lead of 92 runs.

The 35-year-old exclusion from the Test squad for the series against West Indies later this month, fetched a lot of questions from the fans and cricket pundits. The likes of Sunil Gavaskar and Sourav Ganguly were not happy as they think Pujara was made a scapegoat for India’s loss in the WTC Final.

In addition, Sarfaraz Khan has also failed to make a place in the Test squad despite making truckloads of runs in domestic cricket in the recent past. Therefore, both Pujara and Sarfaraz had a chance to breathe life into their India Test ambition leading up to the ongoing Duleep Semi-final for West Zone.