India to struggle in Australia without Cheteshwar Pujara? Shane Watson delivers bold verdict

High-flying Team India will be finishing their campaign in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship cycle with a bumper five-match Test series in Australia.

The Rohit Sharma-led side will be playing a three-match Test series against New Zealand at home before leaving for Australia. The five-match Test series will be getting underway on November 22 in Perth. India will have the opportunity to become only the second team this century to win three Test series in Australia.

India have won their last two Test series on the Australian soil and will be looking to extend their winning run. However, it might not be that easy for the Indian team in the absence of Cheteshwar Pujara. The out-of-favour batsman had played a huge role in both the series wins for India.

In the 2018/19 series, he was the highest run-scorer as India won their first-ever Test series in Australia. In 4 Tests, the right-handed batsman had scored 521 runs with the help of three centuries and a fifty. He was the only batsman to score more than 350 runs in that series.

Shane Watson on India missing Cheteshwar Pujara:

In that 2020-21 series, Pujara starred with the bat again. He finished the series as the fourth-highest run-scorer. In 4 Tests, he scored 271 runs with the help of three half-centuries. With Pujara not a part of the Test team and unlikely to be picked in the squad anytime soon, Team India will have their task cut out against Australia.

However, former Australia allrounder Shane Watson believes India will not miss Pujara's services much. Shane Watson said that young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal will fill the gap left by Pujara. Shane Watson said that while Pujara does not make a mistake, Jaiswal is not very far behind in that regard.

"When you talk about Pujara is (that) he just doesn't make a mistake. Whereas you've seen so many of these incredible batters for India, top-order batters like (Yashasvi) Jaiswal, he has scored runs very quickly, but he hasn't made a mistake," Shane Watson told PTI.

"He hasn't really given the opposition a chance to be able to get him out. If those type of batters do come out to Australia and play aggressively, put the bad balls away and put the pressure on the Aussie bowlers, then they can still have the same effect and they keep the game moving as well.

"With the calibre of batters that India have got and the skill they've got, there's no reason why they can't combine that, putting pressure on the bowlers, score quickly but also not make mistakes," Shane Watson added.

Jaiswal made his Test debut last year and has been an integral member of the team since then. So far, he has scored 1217 runs in 11 Tests with the help of three centuries and seven half-centuries.