Dilip Doshi Reckons He Would Never Drop Cheteshwar Pujara From The ODI Team
Published - 17 Jul 2020, 05:50 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 09:49 AM
Dilip Doshi, former Indian spinner, has reckoned that he would never have dropped Cheteshwar Pujara from the ODI team as he believes that the Saurashtra run-machine has the ability to play the anchor role for a majority of 50 overs.
Cheteshwar Pujara has been the bedrock of the Indian Test team for over a decade now but he has never been considered as a viable option in limited-overs cricket by the team-management. As a result, Pujara has played just 5 ODIs for the country.
“I will not drop a guy like Pujara from my ODI team. I will ask him to hold one end and keep on batting till the 50th over and I think he is quite capable of it,” Dilip Doshi said in a chat with Playwrite Foundation.
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‘Test cricket is a broader canvas’- Dilip Doshi
Pujara’s strike-rate has often come into for contention even in Test cricket. In fact, the Indian No.3 was even dropped from the Test team back in 2016 because of his relatively slow run-making.
Doshi said that it hurts him when people call a player of the caliber of Pujara as ‘too slow’
“It hurts me when people call a high-class batsman such Cheteshwar Pujara as too slow,” Dilip Doshi added.
Dilip Doshi also added that while the emergence of T20 cricket has changed the game completely, Test cricket will always remain the benchmark as far as judging the quality of a cricketer is concerned.
He also believes that the lack of application among the modern-day batsman is one of the major reasons why batsmen tend to struggle against high-quality spinners these days.
“The emergence of T20 cricket has changed the game completely. I believe every good club cricketer can perform in T20 cricket. For me, Test cricket is a broader canvas. I think it is the lack of application among the modern-day batsmen and that’s the reason they struggle against quality spinners,” said Doshi.
“I will encourage youngsters to keep tossing the ball and don’t get disheartened of punishment. For batsmen, runs are like supply of oxygen, so just don’t give them the easy runs, try and suffocate them.” he added.
