Cheteshwar Pujara may have played his final Test in June 2023 during the World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval. However, the Indian team management had apparently charted his exit as early as two years prior, with then-head coach Ravi Shastri and his successor Rahul Dravid reportedly earmarking Abhimanyu Easwaran as Pujara’s successor in the Test format.
When Easwaran was selected at No. 3, the same position Pujara occupied, and struck 103 in the first unofficial Test and 55 in the second, he supported their vision on the India A tour of South Africa in November 2021.
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In an interview with Vickey Lalwani on his YouTube channel, Ranganathan Parameshwaran Easwaran, Abhimanyu's father, disclosed that the "India coaches" had suggested that his son bat one down during that tour in order to prepare him for Pujara's eventual role. He did not identify them, but Shastri was India's head coach at the time. Dravid succeeded Shastri after the 2021 T20 World Cup.
"Abhimanyu was picked up for the India A side. He went to South Africa. With the advice of the Indian coaches at the time, Abhimanyu was asked to play one down, as Cheteshwar Pujara was leaving cricket. So he played at No. 3 and scored 103 against Marco Jansen and five other quality bowlers," the senior Easwaran said.
Easwaran was passed over for the senior Test team's tour to South Africa in spite of his performances. According to his father, his son's prospects of being selected were harmed by the absence of an IPL profile.
"By the time he came back from South Africa, Bengal lost in the quarterfinals to Karnataka. Karnataka played a pre-quarterfinal against Saurashtra. Bengal were out of the Vijay Hazare Trophy by then. So the talent scouts had nothing recent to show on paper. And this perception—along with the absence of an IPL record in my son's profile—is what I feel became a basic impediment to his India selection," he added.
In 2021, the BCCI selectors did call up Easwaran twice, but just as a standby for the WTC final against New Zealand and the home Test series against England. In 2022, he was officially included for the first time for the Test series in Bangladesh. Although he hasn't made his debut yet, he has been a consistent member of the Test team ever since as a backup top-order batter.
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