Team India are on the brink of a hard fought victory or landing in a place where they regret some decisions which prove decisive in their downfall if they fail to achieve those 84 runs on Day four in Birmingham. If India happen to lose, one thing that will haunt skipper Kohli is the exclusion of Pujara from the playing XI. Critics will bash the team selection and Kohli himself will regret the decision to some extent.
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Cheteshwar Pujara, a man who has been playing county since a long time just to perform well in English conditions. Even when the players were busy with IPL in the month of April and May, Pujara was preparing for this all important Test series.
There is no better replacement to Pujara on the number three position. He would have been the perfect person to have in such situations where you have to chase down a low tricky total. He might have come handy in the first innings as well.
KL Rahul is a very good player but lacks temperament. And the think tank taking such an unbelievable decision was something shocking for people around the cricket fraternity.
As Sunil gavaskar quoted,”You need to get tattooed to make it to the playing XI”. To some extent he was right as it looks more of a friendly chance that Virat presented Rahul with. On the basis of IPL form, you can’t pick a player to play a Test series in England. That’s highly indigestible.
India win or lose, either ways on many fronts one can say that picking KL Rahul at number three was a bizarre decision by the team management and skipper Virat Kohli.