IND vs SA: Cheteshwar Pujara And Ajinkya Rahane To Retire From International Cricket? Zaheer Khan Provides Breakthrough Verdict

Chteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have been dropped from the Indian Test squad which will face South Africa in the upcoming two-match Test series. Ajinkya Rahane led the Indian team to the famous Border-Gavaskar trophy in 2020-21 and was also India’s top scorer in the WTC final earlier this year.  However, both Pujara and Rahane failed to make their way to the Indian team for the South Africa tour.

Cheteshwar Pujara has not been in the best of form for India in recent years and Ajinkya Rahane has been on and off the team for quite a few years. However, former India pacer Zaheer Khan reckons this is not the end of the road for Ajinkya Rahane and Pujara as it happens to the best of players but they should motivate themselves and be ready for any opportunity that might knock on their doors.

“These phases are very tough for cricketers like you know those who are in that situation. End of the day what matters is how you look at the situation, you know whether you are enjoying first-class cricket, you are going, to play county you know those kinds of things, if it is exciting you then you gotta keep yourself ready because in the past you have seen instances where you know two test matches here, five test matches against England, anything can happen. Someone getting injured, someone out of form, people might go back to exploring different options,” he said.

“So these things happen but as an individual, it is very tough to motivate in these situations but if you are looking at the situation positively if you do things that are in your hands and if you are enjoying being captain and putting the team together and keeping yourself going it is probably gonna help you.”

“So you have to find your own motivation and let the others do their job. Selectors doing their job, coaches, captain and the team management they figure out their own thing but the bottom line is you gotta enjoy cricket,” he added.

Watch- Zaheer Khan Talking About Cheteshwar Pujara And Ajinkya Rahane’s Exclusion From The Indian Team

#AjinkyaRahane & #CheteshwarPujara are not a part of #India‘s Test squad vs #SouthAfrica ?

Is this the end of the road for the experienced duo❓@ImZaheer & @Parthiv9 answer, on #CricbuzzLive#SAvIND pic.twitter.com/UplKFVOmqk

— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) December 25, 2023

Ajinkya Rahane has been one of India’s greatest players in red-ball cricket. He has also led India in some of the games and has a great success rate as a leader. However, with young talents coming in and other senior players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma being in good form, he has been ignored by the selectors. Talking about Cheteshwar Pujara, he has not been in the best of form since 2021 and that has led to the selectors considering young options for his replacement.

The two of the greatest Test batters for India are going through a tough phase. However, the end is not near for them as there is still a probability that Team India will consider them for upcoming tours. They have been India’s rescue operators for a long time now.