Cheteshwar Pujara might have played his last Test match in June 2023, during the World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval.
But the Indian team management had seemingly planned his exit two years earlier, with then-coach Ravi Shastri and successor Rahul Dravid reportedly identifying Abhimanyu Easwaran as his Test replacement.
Easwaran backed their vision during the India A tour of South Africa in November 2021, where he was slotted at No. 3 – the same position Pujara held – and scored 103 in the first unofficial Test, followed by 55 in the second.
Speaking to Vickey Lalwani on his YouTube channel, Easwaran’s father, Ranganathan Parameshwaran Easwaran, revealed that the “India coaches” had advised his son to bat one down on that tour, preparing him for Pujara’s eventual role. Although he didn’t name them, Shastri was India’s head coach at the time, until he stepped down after the 2021 T20 World Cup, after which Dravid took over.
“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.
Despite his performances, Easwaran was overlooked for the senior Test squad’s tour of South Africa. His father alleged that the lack of an IPL profile had hurt his son’s chances of selection.
“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.
Easwaran did receive two call-ups from the BCCI selectors in 2021, albeit only as a standby – first for the home Test series against England, and then for the WTC final against New Zealand. His first official inclusion came in 2022 for the Test series in Bangladesh. Since then, he has been a regular part of the Test set-up as a back-up top-order batter but is yet to make his debut.