If Pujara has to play in this team, then he should open the innings. That is the only contribution he can make (negating some new ball, he should shield his partner as well if possible). Otherwise he has cost us the matches which we could have won by Strike rate shoot out. Remember last South African tour! India played more overs than South Africa but lost it out on number of runs scored at the end! This match very much looks like that tour! Because losing 40 wickets in that series was 200% certain without any doubt! So Pujara's marathon doesn't make much sense! He was one of the main reasons why we lost that series which we could have won! We won ODI & T20s easily! That tour was far far easier than this current tour! That was the weakest South African team we got! So I was not surprised he is dropped here! He will make sure we will lose matches overseas which we can possibly win, and draw matches in India which we may win!
Rahul Dravid was criticized only for his LOI game's SR (even that he sorted out most times & more so he took Wicket-keeping responsibility!) But his test game was top-notch (at times even better than Sachin!) The only time he was criticized (i.e., in Tests was that famous partnership tour with VVS Laxman! As soon as he was criticized by Ian Chappel, he came back strongly & joined the party!) Pujara lacks all these determination! He has gone several steps far away to score so severely slow! Test Cricket is also about scoring runs at the end of the game (for a batsman), yes you can take ample time, but that doesn't mean that you should not score at all! That will put pressure on yourself and the team immensely!
