Cheteshwar Pujara kicked out of Sussex before 2025 County season

Veteran India National Cricket Team batter Cheteshwar Pujara has been released by the Sussex ahead of the 2025 edition of the County Championship. Instead of the senior other, the County team preferred to retain Australia National Cricket Team batter Dan Hughes.

This comes after Dan Hughes gave assurance of his availability for the entire season for all of their County Championship and T20 Blast games. This comes as a massive setback for Cheteshwar Pujara, who has been the prime performer for Sussex in the last season.

Cheteshwar Pujara has been playing with Sussex for the last three years. The India batter has slammed truckloads of runs for the team and is the major reason behind their success. He also had a terrific season this year as well in the few games that he played for the team. He didn't play once Dan Hughes made a return to the team.

In the 2024 season, Cheteshwar Pujara racked up 501 runs at an incredible average of 62.62 with two centuries and a half-century. His good run with the bat helped the team massively in the Championship as they are at the top of the Championship Division Two points table with five wins, a loss, and three draws in nine matches.

Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace talked about the release of Cheteshwar Pujara, saying that it won't be an easy task but he admitted that Dan Hughes has been top-class for them and they have confidence in the batter. Speaking in an official statement, he stated:

"Taking over from Cheteshwar is not an easy task, but Dan has fitted in brilliantly and we are all delighted he will be back for the whole of next season. Dan has been top-class for us on and off the field. He has brought a wealth of experience to the dressing room and has seriously helped some of our young batters with the development of their games."

Cheteshwar Pujara unlikely to make India return

Cheteshwar Pujara's career seems to be going downhill now as there are very less chances that he might be a feature for India again. The right-hander also wasn't named in any of the squads for Duleep Trophy 2024, which is nothing but gives a clear picture of his future.

India has a lot of Tests scheduled now with the biggest one being the five-match Test series in Australia. Pujara was the main reason behind India winning the last two Test series in Australia. He was Player of the Series in India's historic 2018/19 series win in Australia, where he scored 521 runs in four Tests at 74.42. In the next series, he was the rock for the Indian team in batting.

He last played for India in the final of the ICC World Test Championship 2023. He returned with scores of 14 and 27 as India suffered a 209-run defeat. The batter then was replaced by Shubman Gill at No.3 and with the youngster performing well, he's likely not to feature in Tests.

Overall, Cheteshwar Pujara has scored 7,000 runs in 103 games at an average of 43.60, including 19 centuries and 35 half-centuries. It remains to be seen if the right-hander will play for Saurashtra in the upcoming domestic season or not.