Sunil Gavaskar compares the stature of Rahul Dravid with Cheteshwar Pujara

Legendary Indian batsman and renowned Cricket analyst-commentator, Sunil Gavaskar has recently drawn a comparison between The Wall Rahul Dravid and current Indian number three batsman Cheteshwar Pujara. He also claimed that Shikhar Dhawan inclusion was justified in the eleven ahead of Abhinav Mukund as the former’s contribution in the First Test match had more impact.

Gavaskar claimed that the Saurashtra batsman has been the backbone of the Indian batting line up in Test Cricket for a while now, much like Dravid. He also lauded the captaincy of Virat Kohli and decisions made by the management for sticking with Pujara during his lean patch back in 2015. He further added that the move made by the think tank proved that the team rated Pujara highly as someone of the calibre of Dravid.

Dhawan finds backing from Sunny

“Cheteshwar Pujara is the backbone of the Indian team. He is highly rated as Rahul Dravid was,” commented Sunil Gavaskar according to an interview with NDTV. “Shikhar Dhawan has to play in the team. His innings in 1st Test was more impactful than Abhinav Mukund’s.” added the Little Master later on the inclusion of Dhawan ahead of Mukund.

According to Gavaskar, the only point of discussion regarding selection should be for the opening slot as currently, India has three openers for two places in the Test lineup. Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Murali Vijay are the three contenders for the opening slot. It would be interesting to see the combination of the Indian openers once Murali Vijay regains his fitness.

Pujara, since his lean patch in 2015, has never looked back as smashed one ton after other in the Grand home season of Test Cricket, featuring teams such as Australia, England and New Zealand. Pujara recently scored a century in the Second Test at Colombo following his ton at Galle.