IND vs SA: Still no better than Cheteshwar Pujara in Tests, had same contribution as Kohli - Harbhajan Singh

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IND vs SA: After India's humiliating innings defeat against South Africa in Centurion, Harbhajan Singh questioned the decision of selectors and the team management to ignore Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara.

Harbhajan Singh marked that Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara are two extremely experienced cricketers who would have been great help for India in difficult South Africa conditions where India were bundled out for 131 to lose the Boxing Day Test match by an innings and 32 runs.

He talked on length about Cheteshwar Pujara who was the second-highest run-scorer for India after Virat Kohli in the previous WTC cycle where he amassed 928 runs at an average of 32.00. Notably, Kohli scored 932 runs at an average of 32.13 in the cycle.

Harbhajan asserted that there was still no better Test batter in India than Pujara. He also said that his contributions are similar to that of Kohli. Harbhajan Singh also added that a player like Pujara saves the team in difficult batting conditions.

"You didn't select Ajinkya Rahane and have left Cheteshwar Pujara out for no reason. These are the two players who have scored runs everywhere. If you look at the previous record Pujara has the same contribution as Kohli had.

"I absolutely clueless why Pujara has been left out, we still don't have a better batter than Pujara in Test cricket. He plays slowly but he saves you, because of him India won Test in Australia and England," Harbhajan Singh on his YouTube channel.

Earlier, during India's first innings at the SuperSport Park, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar had rued the absence of Rahane as he recalled his valiant knock of 48 in the 2018/19 series at the very same venue.

During India's 1st innings at the SuperSport Park, Sunil Gavaskar had reckoned that Ajinkya Rahane should have been part of the team. He recalled Rahane's 68-ball 48 on a difficult Johannesburg surface back in 2018.

"People have been talking about the pitch in the Johannesburg Test five years back and I was there. Yeah it wasn't the easiest of pitches to bat on the odd ball was climbing up. And Ajinkya Rahane, who had not been picked for the first two Test matches, was picked for that game and he showed what the Indian team had missed because earlier on in the first couple of Test matches India did not lose by big margins.

"So maybe somebody with Rahane's experience overseas... because Rahane overseas has been such a fine, fine player and maybe if he had been there today the story could have been completely different," Gavaskar had said while commentating for Star Sports.