Pujara calls for 25-30 players dedicated to Tests
It is acceptable for a cricketer choosing to play only white-ball formats for India but 25-30 players, who are not a part of the Indian Premier League, should be earmarked for Test cricket on the basis of their domestic performances, said former player Cheteshwar Pujara on Wednesday.
Pujara said while he would urge all youngsters to give serious consideration to becoming all-format players for India, it is not imperative for the white-ball aspirants to learn skills for the red ball.
“I do agree that some of the white-ball players, especially the batters, are coming in a way where they haven’t played enough red-ball cricket, but they don’t need to,” Pujara replied when asked if basics of red-ball were still the prerequisites of success in the IPL.
“If you are just looking for a player who wants to specialise in T20 format, or who wants to just play the white-ball cricket, do they really need to learn Test cricket?” Pujara, a JioHotstar CTV Hindi expert, told reporters during an interaction here on Wednesday.
“If they don’t want to play all three formats, definitely not. The way cricket is moving forward, we will see players who are picking white-ball cricket and players who will pick red-ball cricket — that is how I see things going forward.”
He continued, “But at the same time, if you are dedicated enough, I always would encourage a young player to play all three formats of the game, and especially red-ball cricket.”
Pujara cited the example of frontline bowlers from Test cricket who are still thriving in batter-dominated IPL.
“If you look at the bowlers who have been successful in the IPL, for example, someone like Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Kagiso Rabada... (they) all have been great Test cricketers,” he said.
“If you look at their line and length, they have been very successful in Test cricket and that’s why they are getting success even in T20 format. I wouldn’t say or advise any youngster to shy away from red-ball cricket.”
“But if a player like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who hasn’t played a lot of red-ball cricket and he is coming into the IPL and smashing sixes to all the bowlers, there is nothing wrong in that,” he added.
Pujara said while BCCI have started looking into players only for red-ball cricket, he said 25-30 players who are not the IPL should be trained for the future.
“You know you will have to pick the teams for white ball (formats) and then you pick a team for the red ball, so you need to identify 25-30 players in Indian domestic cricket that these are our red-ball players,” he said.
“You will have 5-6 players (among those) who are multi-format players, but you need to identify 25-30 players who will be best suited to play Test format for the Indian team, try and work on them.”
“I’m sure BCCI has already taken that initiative and they are working on the players who will be successful in just red-ball cricket. Try and give them training while the IPL is on because some of the players may not be part of the IPL (teams), so they should be training at the NCA (Centre of Excellence),” he added.
Pujara added, “You need to pick them from their domestic performances and work on them for at least couple of years and then you will eventually get them to play in the Test format.
