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Dodda Ganesh recently slammed Sunil Joshi after the latter picked Suryakumar Yadav ahead of Cheteshwar Pujara for the first Test between India and Australia, starting in Nagpur on Thursday, February 9.
Joshi, who has been a selector in the past, reckoned that Rohit Sharma and Co. should start with Suryakumar at No. 3 in place of incumbent Pujara.
The former Indian spinner made the statement while picking India's playing XI for the first Test on his official Twitter handle.
His decision didn't bode well with many fans, who took a dig at the former Indian spinner. Reacting to the tweet, Ganesh expressed that Pujara has always been a scapegoat throughout his career.
"One of the ex selectors wants Surya to be chosen ahead of Pujara for tests. Let that sink in," the former Indian seamer tweeted. "I mean, the audacity to even think that one can replace Pujara with someone who’s yet to play a test, boggles my mind. No wonder poor Pujara has been a scapegoat all his life #BGT2023."
Incidentally, Suryakumar is yet to make his red-ball debut despite enjoying immense success in T20Is. However, he boasts a decent first-class record.
He has scored 5549 runs, including 14 centuries and 28 fifties, in 79 matches at an average of 44.75. The Mumbai-born batter was recently seen in action in the ongoing Ranji Trophy and looked in good touch. He played a sublime 90-run knock against Hyderabad and backed it up with 95 and 38 in the next game against Saurashtra.
Pujara, on the other hand, has been India's regular No. 3 batter ever since Rahul Dravid hung his boots. So far, he has played 98 Tests, aggregating 7014 runs at an average of almost 45, including 19 tons and 34 fifties.
India's squad for the first two Tests vs Australia
Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, and Suryakumar Yadav.
