No matter who you drop, bring back Cheteshwar Pujara, Kuldeep, says Harbhajan Singh

The chorus to bring Cheteshwar Pujara back into the XI for the second India-England Test starting at Lord’s on Thursday, August 9, is growing louder. Senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has now said that irrespective of who is left out, the visitors must include Pujara besides chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav in the team for the next game.

India took a gamble of not playing Pujara and instead, accommodated three openers in the playing XI for the first Test in Birmingham which they lost by 31 runs, mainly because of an abject batting display. None of the three openers (KL Rahul among them fitted at No.3 where Pujara bats) managed to deliver except putting up a 50-run partnership in the first innings.

I am not bothered who is dropped but Kuldeep must play

The call has particularly grown stronger to axe Shikhar Dhawan, who played the first Test despite his ordinary form, to make way for Pujara. “I don’t care who should be dropped, but the Lord’s Test playing XI must have Pujara. He is a player who can take the polish off the new ball and stay at the crease,” Singh, who has taken 417 wickets in 103 Tests, told Mid-Day on Monday, August 6.

Thirty-eight-year-old Singh, who is in England as a commentator for the ongoing series, also called for Kuldeep to be drafted in. “Again, I am not bothered who is dropped but Kuldeep must play,” he said. Singh was a part of the Indian squad that toured England in 2002 and 2011 respectively.

Pujara himself is also not in a good nick either. He could manage just 172 runs in six matches (at an average of 14.33) during his stint with Yorkshire this season and also failed to score in the three-day warm-up game against Essex before the first Test.

In the one-off Test against Afghanistan at home in June, too, the right-handed batsman could not score more than 35. Recently, he also said that his role in the team was laid out while India’s head coach Ravi Shastri also said that he had no problem with Pujara’s scoring rate.

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