Cheteshwar Pujara might need performed his final Take a look at match in June 2023, in the course of the World Take a look at Championship ultimate in opposition to Australia at The Oval. However the Indian crew administration had seemingly deliberate his exit two years earlier, with then-coach Ravi Shastri and successor Rahul Dravid reportedly figuring out Abhimanyu Easwaran as his Take a look at substitute.
Easwaran backed their imaginative and prescient in the course of the India A tour of South Africa in November 2021, the place he was slotted at No. 3 — the identical place Pujara held — and scored 103 within the first unofficial Take a look at, adopted by 55 within the second.
Chatting with Vickey Lalwani on his YouTube channel, Easwaran’s father, Ranganathan Parameshwaran Easwaran, revealed that the “India coaches” had suggested his son to bat one down on that tour, making ready him for Pujara’s eventual position. Though he didn’t title them, Shastri was India’s head coach on the time, till he stepped down after the 2021 T20 World Cup, after which Dravid took over.
“Abhimanyu was picked up for the India A facet. He went to South Africa. With the recommendation of the Indian coaches on the time, Abhimanyu was requested to play one down, as Cheteshwar Pujara was leaving cricket. So he performed at No. 3 and scored 103 in opposition to Marco Jansen and 5 different high quality bowlers,” the senior Easwaran mentioned.
Regardless of his performances, Easwaran was missed for the senior Take a look at squad’s tour of South Africa. His father alleged that the dearth of an IPL profile had harm his son’s possibilities of choice.
“By the point he got here again from South Africa, Bengal misplaced within the quarterfinals to Karnataka. Karnataka performed a pre-quarterfinal in opposition to Saurashtra. Bengal had been out of the Vijay Hazare Trophy by then. So the expertise scouts had nothing latest to point out on paper. And this notion—together with the absence of an IPL file in my son’s profile—is what I really feel turned a primary obstacle to his India choice,” he added.
Easwaran did obtain two call-ups from the BCCI selectors in 2021, albeit solely as a standby — first for the house Take a look at sequence in opposition to England, after which for the WTC ultimate in opposition to New Zealand. His first official inclusion got here in 2022 for the Take a look at sequence in Bangladesh. Since then, he has been a daily a part of the Take a look at set-up as a back-up top-order batter however is but to make his debut.
