India vs England | Mike Hussey suggests dropping Cheteshwar Pujara was the right decision

The Indian cricket team got off to a cracker of a start on day one of the Edgbaston Test as a resurgent Ravichandran Ashwin took center stage as he claimed four wickets. Virat Kohli & Co. will look to put in a good performance after England ended day one at 285/9. The onus will be on the opening quartet of Murali Vijay, surprise inclusion Shikhar Dhawan, in-form KL Rahul, and of course, Virat Kohli to lead the way for the visitors.

And former Aussie cricketer Mike Hussey backed the Indians to shine as he claimed that the decision to drop Cheteshwar Pujara as the number three batsman has considerably strengthened the Indian batting order. In England, Pujara managed to score only 222 runs from five Tests in 2014 and enjoyed a less than exciting outing in the county championship ahead of the ongoing five-match Test series. Meanwhile, Rahul enjoyed a stunning run in this year’s IPL along with decent performances in the recently concluded T20I and ODI series against the three lions.

“The dropping of Pujara from the squad for the first Test (against England) is a real good sign of strength for India. It suggests India is a good side with a strong batting line-up.

“Both Pujara and Rahul are good batsmen, but sometimes a team goes for a batsman who is playing batting better than the other at a given point of time,” Hussey told reporters at a Karnataka Premier League event in Bengaluru.

After the UK tour, the next big challenge that awaits the Indians lay in the form of the mighty Australians in the latter stages of 2018. However, India will face a weakened Australian batting line-up in the absence of David Warner and Steve Smith when they go head-to-head in four Test matches in December-January. And Hussey revealed his fears over the same, as he reckoned that the Australian batting order was not the same without their banned captain and vice-captain. However, he placed his faith in the bowlers to trouble the Indian batsmen at home.

“I am a little worried about Australia’s batting, because we are missing two of our best batsmen in Smith and Warner. It is a wonderful chance for India to win its first ever Test series in Australia.

“If Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathon Lyon are fit and firing, India will have to work hard for runs. Australia have an excellent bowling attack,” Hussey added.