Cheteshwar Pujara to come back for South Africa Tests? 'I am still in scheme of things for India," says batter

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Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara has hinted that he can make a comeback for India for the Test series against South Africa in December. The 35-year-old, who has hit two List A hundreds for Sussex in six days in the ongoing One-Day Cup, said he is "still in the scheme of things" for India.

Pujara will also feature in the last leg of matches for Sussex in September in the County Championship 2023. The right-hand batter believes that runs in those matches can facilitate his India comeback.

“Yeah, it’s nice to score runs. Look, I always try and control the things which I can and it’s always about getting as many runs as possible in whatever games I play. I am still in the scheme of things (for India), so I hope that the moment I start scoring runs in first-class games, I’ll be back into the team, but I’ll just try and be in the present, try and take one game at a time," Pujara told on Sussex's YouTube channel.

“We are not going to play any more Test matches in the next two-three months' time. The next Test series is in South Africa in December so there is a long way to go, but I’ll try and focus on the next few games and then try and move into the Championships because we have a few important Championships games coming up in September. We have a chance to qualify and that’s the prime focus for us," he added.

After being dropped for the 2-Test series against West Indies, Pujara played for West Zone in Duleep Trophy. He scored 28 and 133 runs to fire his team in the final but failed to take his team over the line in the final which saw him score 9 and 15 on a bowling-friendly surface.

Pujara was dropped last year as well but he made his comeback through his performances for Sussex. He played all the four matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy before playing the WTC final in June against Australia.