Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane's Time All But Over? Rohit Sharma Says, "Not Considering Them Is..."

India skipper Rohit Sharma on Wednesday hinted that the Test career of veterans Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane might not be revived as the focus has shifted to giving more opportunities to younger players. Once Virat Kohli decided to skip the first two matches against England, the possibility of including either Pujara or Rahane to the India Test squad was discussed widely but if one is aware about the thought process of current selection panel headed by Ajit Agarkar, they are not in a mood to look back.

As it turned out, India opted to bring in Rajat Patidar as Kohli's replacement.

Rohit explained the rationale behind the decision to bring in Patidar.

"Look, actually, we did think about it (going back to a senior player). But all these younger players, when are they going to get their opportunity? That's something we thought, I thought as well," Rohit said during his pre-match press conference.

However, Rohit said leaving out some of the senior pros was not an easy decision to make.

Rahane's last appearance for India was against the West Indies at Port of Spain in mid-2023, while Pujara was dropped after the World Test Championship final against Australia at the Oval last year.

"Leaving out an experienced player or not considering them is very hard. The amount of runs they've scored, the kind of experience they've had, the amount of games they have won for us, you know, it's very hard to ignore all of that," the skipper had all empathy for his longtime teammates.

"But, you know, you sometimes have to bring certain players into your set-up as well. You have to give them favourable conditions as you don't want to expose them on foreign doors, where they've not played before. So, I think it's important that we try