Former spinner Harbhajan Singh questioned India's decision to drop middle-order maestros Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara from the Test series in South Africa.
The Proteas crushed India's hopes of winning their first Test series in South Africa as they hammered the visitors by an innings and 32 runs inside three days of the 1st Test at Centurion.
'Didn't select Ajinkya Rahane and have left Cheteshwar Pujara out for no reason. These are the two players who have scored runs everywhere,' Bhajji said on his YouTube channel.
'If you look at the previous record, Pujara has the same contribution as (Virat) Kohli had. I don't understand why Pujara has been left out. We still don't have a better batter than Puajra in Test cricket. He plays slowly, but he saves you. Because of him India won Tests in Australia and England,' Bhajji added.
'In three days India for a single moment never looked in the game. They scored 245 runs after losing the toss in the first innings innings and it was all thanks to K L Rahul. He played a fantastic knock which propelled India's score to 245. In the second innings, India could only score 131 and if you remove Virat Kohli's contribution, then it would have been more difficult,' the veteran of 103 Tests pointed out.
'It never looked like Virat Kohli would get out at any point he was playing at will. The match was decided on India's performance in the first innings,' Bhajji, who has taken 417 Test wickets, added.
Pujara was the second highest run-scorer for India in the 2021-2023 World Test Championship cycle where he scored 928 runs at an average of 32. Only Virat Kohli had better numbers -- he scored 932 at an average of 32.13.
Pujara and Rahane were part of India's Test team till earlier this year, but were left out of the tour to South Africa, the selectors pinning hopes on youngsters Shubman Gill and Yashawi Jaiswal to produce the goods in challenging conditions.
Pujara made his last Test appearance during India's World Test Championship final loss against Australia, while Rahane last played a Test during India's tour of the West Indies.
Rahane scored 94 runs in the two Test appearances in the Caribbean, while, Pujara scored 41 runs across both innings in the WTC final. Rahane had also made a resilient fifty in the WTC final.
On Day 2 of the Centurion Test, Sunil Gavaskar commented during the broadcast that India's story might have been different had they selected Rahane to play.
Recalling the 2018/19 series in Johannesburg when Rahane scored a resilient 48 runs on a challenging pitch, Gavaskar noted that the contribution was instrumental in India clinching a 63 run victory in the final match of that series.
'People have been talking about the pitch in the Johannesburg Test five years back and I was there. Yeah, it wasn't the easiest of pitches to bat on, the odd ball was climbing up. And Ajinkya Rahane, who had not been picked for the first two Test matches, was picked for that game and he showed what the Indian team had missed because earlier on in the first couple of Test matches India did not lose by big margins,' Gavaskar recalled.
'So maybe somebody with Rahane's experience overseas... because Rahane overseas has been such a fine, fine player and maybe if he had been there today the story could have been completely different,' Gavaskar said.
India will look to draw the series as they face South Africa in the second Test at the Newlands cricket ground in Cape Town on January 3.
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