Former Indian spinner, Dilip Doshi said in his ODI team a class batsman like Cheteshwar Pujara will always find a place as the latter has the capability to hold one end and batting till the 50th over. Notably, Cheteshwar Pujara has played just 5 ODI matches for India since his debut in 2013 and has not made a name for himself in limited-overs cricket. 

During a recent chat with Playwrite Foundation, Dilip Doshi said, “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.”

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Pujara has often been touted as the successor of former Indian skipper, Rahul Dravid in Tests. Pujara bats at No.3, has a solid technique, is a gritty batsman, and often plays the role of the sheet anchor along with Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. However, he has played his last OD match for India in 2014 during a series in Bangladesh. He has had a far from impressive ODI record, having scored only 51 runs in the 5 ODI innings.

Doshi also said that it hurt him to see people terming someone like Pujara ‘too slow’.

Expressing the same, Pujara said, “It hurts me when people call a high-class batsman such Cheteshwar Pujara as too slow. 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.

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Giving a tip to the young bowlers, Doshi said, “I will encourage youngsters to keep tossing the ball and don’t get disheartened of punishment. For batsmen, runs are like the supply of oxygen, so just don’t give them the easy runs, try and suffocate them.”