You Can’t Be There Forever

Former India National Cricket Team captain and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president, Sourav Ganguly, has reacted to the snub of veteran batters Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara from the Test squad for the upcoming South Africa tour.

The India tour of South Africa 2023-24 consists of a three-match T20I series, a three-match ODI series, and a two-match Test series. The Men In Blue and the Proteas will play two Test matches to wrap up the series with the first Test starting on December 26 in Centurion. The second and final Test will be played from January 3 in Cape Town.

India have announced squads for the all-format tour and one of the major talking points coming out of Test squad selection was the absence of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, who have been two of the best ever to play red-ball cricket for India.

The duo was dropped from the Test squad ahead of the 2022 home series against Sri Lanka, but they made a strong comeback in the team. They even featured in the WTC Final 2023 and after that Pujara was once again dropped whereas Rahane was retained for the next Test series against West Indies before eventually being left out for the upcoming South Africa tour.

This will be the first time that Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane won’t be part of the Indian squad for the South Africa Test tour since making their respective debuts.

At some point of time you have to play new talents – Sourav Ganguly

Recently, the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly talked about the non-selection of Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara for the South Africa tour. He said that India have enormous talent and one can’t remain in the team forever. He heaped praise on the veteran batters for their contributions but added that it’s time for fresh faces to be a part of the team.

“At some point of time you have to play new talents. It happens, there is enormous talent in India and the team has to progress. Pujara and Rahane had enormous success for India, sport doesn’t remain with you forever,” Ganguly said, as quoted by HT.

“You cannot be there forever, it will happen to everyone. I must thank them what they have done for Indian cricket and selectors want fresh faces, so that’s the way it is.”

India’s squad for Tests: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohd. Shami*, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna.