The Indian team management and selectors may have long considered Cheteshwar Pujara as a Test specialist, but the right-hand batsman from Saurashtra has found support of his limited-overs prospects from former left-arm spinner Dilip Doshi.
Pujara, India's rock at No.3 in Test match cricket for close to a decade, played last of his five intermittent ODIs in June 2014 against Bangladesh and has never been considered for selection in T20Is.
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The 32-year-old has time and again expressed his willingness to play white-ball cricket for India, even when his style of play, a game built around defence and patience at the crease, is being deemed dispensable to the Virat Kohli-led side filled with attacking batsmen in high-scoring times.
For Doshi, however, there is no doubt that Pujara still has a role to play, especially in the 50-over version.
"I will not drop a guy like Pujara from my ODI team. I will ask him to hold one end and keep on batting till the 50th over and I think he is quite capable of it," he said in a chat with 'Playwrite Foundation'.
"It hurts me when people call a high-class batsman such Cheteshwar Pujara as too slow," Doshi added.
Having played 33 Tests and 15 ODIs for the country, Doshi thinks cracking the code in Test match cricket remains a major challenge for players of the modern-day age.
“The emergence of T20 cricket has changed the game completely. I believe every good club cricketer can perform in T20 cricket. For me, Test cricket is a broader canvas. I think it is the lack of application among the modern-day batsmen and that’s the reason they struggle against quality spinners," said the 72-year-old, who also offered a word of healthy advice for young spinners aspiring to play for India.
"I will encourage youngsters to keep tossing the ball and don’t get disheartened of punishment. For batsmen, runs are like supply of oxygen, so just don’t give them the easy runs, try and suffocate them," he concluded.
