Sunil Gavaskar backs Shikhar Dhawan,compares Cheteshwar Pujara to Rahul Dravid

Colombo: Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar heaped praises on Team India cricketers Cheteshwar Pujara and Shikhar Dhawan for their exemplary performances in the ongoing Test series in Sri Lanka.

Gavaskar claimed that retaining Shikhar Dhawan for the second Test was justified as the left hander made a major impact, scoring a blistering 190 in the first innings of the Galle Test.

“Shikhar Dhawan has to play in the team. His innings in 1st Test was more impactful than Abhinav Mukund’s,” Gavaskar said to NDTV.

The former India captain also went on to draw comparisons between legendary Indian batsman Rahul Dravid and current national team no. 3 batter Cheteshwar Pujara, who has scored 301 runs so far in the series, at an astounding average of 100.33. He claimed that the Saurashtra batsman has been the “backbone” of the Indian batting line up in the lonest version of the game for a while now, much like Dravid.

“Cheteshwar Pujara is the backbone of the Indian team. He is highly rated as Rahul Dravid was,” said Gavaskar.

The Little Master went on to laud the Team India management for sticking with Pujara, when the batsman was going through lean patch in 2015.