Gambhir vs Agarkar? Selection Committee declined Head Coach's request of Cheteshwar Pujara's inclusion for BGT 2024-25: Reports

Team India have been going through a transition period at the moment. They have found themselves on the receiving end in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 and are on the verge of getting eliminated from the World Test Championship final race.

India have retained the BGT trophy for ten years, and it looks like Australia will end that drought and regain the trophy as they are leading by 2-1 with one game left to play. Not just the performance; some reports are also claiming a rift in the Indian camp.

Team India have struggled badly in the series with the bat. The form of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli has not scored runs as they would have liked. That's where India would have liked a solid batter like Cheteshwar Pujara, who has had immense success on previous Australian tours and played a crucial role in India's BGT triumphs in the last two tours.

IND vs AUS: Ajit Agarkar declined Gautam Gambhir's request to pick Cheteshwar Pujara for BGT series - Reports

According to some media reports, the Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir wanted to include veteran Indian batter Cheteshwar Pujara in the Indian squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but Ajit Agarkar and his team declined his request. Pujara has done a great job on Australian soil and is one of the leading scorers in the BGT history. He knows the conditions well and has done well against the likes of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, and Nathan Lyon.

Notably, Pujara scored the most runs in the BGT 2018-19 and finished the tournament with 521 runs at an average of 74.42 with three hundreds and one fifty when India won the first-ever test series on Australian soil. Then again, he scored 271 runs in the BGT 2020-21 and played crucial innings in Sydney and the historic Gabba win.

In Australia, the 36-year-old has played 11 tests and scored 993 runs at an average of 47.28. It has been learned that Gambhir even talked about Pujara's inclusion after India won the first test in Perth. But the Indian selection committee didn't approve his request.

Pujara played his last test match for India during the World Test Championship final 2023 at the Oval. His form declined after that but he has done well at the domestic level. Team India are currently struggling to score runs and they need a sound performance to level the series with a win at the SCG.

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