Shane Watson explains why Cheteshwar Pujara's absence will not hurt India in Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25

Cheteshwar Pujara has undoubtedly had a stellar career while representing India in their red-ball setup. He established himself as the backbone of the batting department following the retirement of Rahul Dravid. However, the Indian selectors and team management have gone past Pujara, who has not played an international red-ball game since WTC Final against Australia in 2023.

Pujara was also a crucial cog in the team's wheel in their last two tours Down Under, as he was the leading run-getter in the 2018-19 series (521 runs in seven innings) while he played historical knocks in Sydney and Brisbane in the 2020-21 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, with India winning both the series by an identical 2-1 margin.

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However, it is unlikely Pujara will make it to the squad for the upcoming edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy despite grinding it out for Sussex in the recently-concluded County Championship. Despite his absence, former Australian batter Shane Watson feels that India might not miss their veteran owing to the kind of talent they have at their disposal in the current setup.

“When you talk about Pujara, it is that he just doesn’t make a mistake. Whereas, you’ve seen so many of these incredible batters for India, top-order batters like [Yashwai] Jaiswal, he has scored runs very quickly, but he hasn’t made a mistake. He hasn’t really given the opposition a chance to be able to get him out,” stated Watson, as quoted by News18.

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Watson highlighted that if Jaiswall-like offensive batters are incorporated into the Indian system, then Pujara's absence from the squad wouldn't affect the team at all.

“If those types of batters do come out to Australia and play aggressively, put the bad balls away, and put the pressure on the Aussie bowlers, then they can still have the same effect (as with Pujara in the team) and they keep the game moving as well,” added Watson.