England vs India: Mike Hussey feels that Cheteshwar Pujara's exclusion shows the strength of the Indian team

The Indian Test specialist batsman Cheteshwar Pujara has been out of form for quite some time now, especially in the overseas conditions like South Africa, Australia, and England. He recently had his share of long struggles in dealing with the English conditions during his summer stint with Yorkshire, in which Pujara failed miserably averaging just 14.33 in 12 innings.

He also had a poor outing in the three-day practice game against Essex, which probably led to his exclusion from the playing XI for the first Test against England in Birmingham. However, former Australian cricketer Mike Hussey thinks that the decision to drop Pujara depicts the real character of this Indian side.

It shows that how strong is the Indian batting line-up

Hussey reckons that the visitors took a big call while excluding a skilled and potent batter in Pujara for the opening encounter at Edgbaston. At the same time, he also mentioned that the decision shows a good sign of strength for this Indian team. Even in the absence of Pujara, the Indian batting line-up looks to be a pretty solid and formidable unit.

“The dropping of Pujara from the squad for the first Test (against England) is a real good sign of strength for India. It suggests India is a good side with a strong batting line-up,” Hussey was quoted as saying by the media at a Karnataka Premier League (KPL) event in Bengaluru.

Rahul is in a better form than Pujara

Indian batsman KL Rahul has been in sensational form ever since the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 and carried over his touch the limited-overs leg of England tour.  He smashed an amazing century in the first T20I match after which he scored a half-century in the first innings of the practice game against Essex followed by an unbeaten knock in the second innings.

The former Aussie batsman also noted that sometimes the team management needs to go ahead with the batsman who is in a better form. “Both Pujara and Rahul are good batsmen, but sometimes a team goes for a batsman who is playing batting better than the other at a given point of time,” he added.

[interaction id=”5b5c560f77f0ec452a57d18a”]

For more news alerts, follow CricTracker.com.