Former Indian cricketer emphasises on Cheteshwar Pujara's below par 'average' ahead of WTC 2023 final

The Indian cricket team will be aiming to end their 10-year major world title drought against Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, which will take place between June 7 and 11 at The Oval. India qualified in the WTC final for the second time, while the Australian team qualified for the first time.

Meanwhile, former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra, who is now a commentator, raised concern about Cheteshwar Pujara's disappointing performance in England before the WTC final and said that he made a comeback in the Indian team because of County Cricket.

“Pujara has scored a lot of runs in county cricket. In fact, because of that only he made a comeback into the Indian team, but the truth is that he has probably played only one match fewer than Kohli but his numbers are not flattering at all,” Chopra was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

Pujara's average is less than 30: Aakash Chopra

The average for Pujara in England is under 30, which is also the average for Ajinkya Rahane, who is making his comeback in the longest format after a year. Even though both players have scored hundreds, their long-term averages in England continue to be below the acceptable level. Even the modern-day great Virat Kohli, who averaged 33.32 in 16 Test matches, played on English soil, struggled there. Chopra continued by saying that Kohli's average was impacted by his subpar 2014 series and mediocre 2015 series.

"His (Pujara's) average is less than 30. It is either 26 or 29. His and Rahane's averages are almost equal. One has 26 and the other has 29. They have played a lot of matches, have struck a century apiece as well but the average on England grounds over a period of time is below 30, which is not great," Chopra said.

"If you are thinking about how Kohli's performances have been, his average is also only 33. He has scored over 1000 runs, the only Indian to score a thousand runs in this current team setup but the average is 33 because the 2014 series was very bad and the last one was middling," he added.