Cheteshwar Pujara: The doors of comeback are closed for Cheteshwar Pujara… Now he is dropped from this foreign team too!

Star batsman Cheteshwar Pujara has been out of Team India for a long time. Pujara played his last international match for India in the World Test Championship (WTC) last year. Pujara could score only 41 runs in that final match against Australia. After this, Pujara was dropped from the Test team.

…so now he got dropped from the county team too

Now there is no good news for India’s Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara. Pujara will not return to the Sussex team for the County Championship next year (2025 County Championship). The English club has opted to release him to retain the services of Australia’s Daniel Hughes. Left-handed batsman Hughes will be available for all Championship and T20 Vitality Blast matches next season.

The club also announced that West Indies right-arm fast bowler Jaden Seals will play for the county team in the opening matches of the championship. Pujara played for Sussex for the third consecutive time in 2024. He played the first 7 championship matches before Hughes’ return. Talking about first class cricket, Pujara scored 2244 runs in 34 innings at an average of 74.80 during 2022-2024, which included his 10 centuries and 3 half-centuries.

Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace said in a statement released on the official website, “It was not an easy task to end the contract with Cheteshwar, but Daniel fits in the team according to our needs and we are happy that he will be available for the entire next season.” Hughes scored 560 runs at an average of 43.07 in the group stage of this year’s Blast, including 5 half-centuries. His highest score was 96 runs. He will be available to play in the remaining 5 matches of the County Championship in the current season.

Such is Pujara’s test career

36-year-old Cheteshwar Pujara’s Test career has been excellent. Pujara has so far scored 7195 runs in 103 Test matches at an average of 43.60. During this, 19 centuries and 35 half-centuries came from his bat. Pujara played his last international match for India in the final of the World Championship last year. Pujara could score only 41 runs in that final match against Australia. After this, Pujara was dropped from the Test team.

If we look at it, Pujara is the fourth highest run scorer in first class cricket. Pujara has scored 20899 runs in 271 first class matches so far. Pujara has scored 65 centuries and 80 half-centuries during this period. Sunil Gavaskar is the highest run scorer in first class cricket. Sunil Gavaskar scored 25834 runs in 348 first class matches at an average of 51.46, which included 81 centuries and 105 half-centuries. Sachin Tendulkar is second in this case with 25396 runs. Rahul Dravid is third in this case with 23794 runs.