5 surprising captaincy decisions by Virat Kohli in 2018

#3 Dropping Cheteshwar Pujara for the first Test in England

Cheteshwar Pujara

Cheteshwar Pujara is undoubtedly one of the most consistent performers in red ball cricket. He has been an important member of the Indian team in the longest format, and can single-handedly change the course of the game.

However, the Saurashtra batsman was overlooked by his skipper and dropped for the first Test against England at Edgbaston. The Indian team tried KL Rahul as their new number three batsman. But the move did not bring the desired result as the Karnataka batsman flopped with the bat in both the innings.

The Indian team management soon realized the mistake and included Pujara for the following game. He then went on to score 278 runs in the remaining 4 Tests at an average of about 40.

Pujara has already played a couple of brilliant knocks in the ongoing Test series against Australia.