Cheteshwar Pujara - The batsman India needs

To say that Cheteshwar Pujara is not a flamboyant cricketer would be an understatement.

There are players who take a simple catch and celebrate as if it is the catch of the century. There are players who score a century and celebrate as if it is the best hundred of all time. Then there is Cheteshwar Pujara, who scores a century and goes about his work as if nothing special has happened.

Pujara belongs to a very rare breed of cricketers. He is never satisfied with his performance and will keep fighting for his country no matter what comes in front of him.

Sure, the kind of cricket Pujara plays is not eye-catching. But it is very effective. His batting would have been the difference between defeat and victory in the low scoring first test.

With the Dukes ball expected to continue darting around the way it did in Edgbaston, the series is expected to be a low scoring one. And when runs are at a premium, there is no one better than Pujara to take the team through to safety.

The last tour of England was not a good one for Pujara, but the same applies to Virat Kohli as well. The Indian team can drop Pujara in the Indian sub continent where other batsmen are also well equipped to score big hundreds. But in England, India needs Pujara.

In the Indian tour of South Africa earlier this year, Ajinkya Rahane was dropped for the first two Tests and was only included in the last game of the three match series. He ended up playing a defining role in the Indian win in that match.

Crucially though, the series was already over when the mistake was corrected. Indian cricket fans must be hoping that this time the mistake is corrected before the loss of the series.

The selection of Shikhar Dhawan in the playing XI has been a very debatable decision. The way he handled the swing bowling must have made all the batsmen in the dressing room anxious. Also, selecting him sends a very wrong message that aggressive cricket will be rewarded regardless of the runs scored.

The decision also put K L Rahul in a precarious situation. He knew that he had to apply himself on England pitches to succeed, but he had seen the fate of Pujara who was dropped for scoring at a slow rate. So he went for big shots and paid the price.

The media are attracted to cricketers who are aggressive and flamboyant. So it is understandable if they ignore the so-called good guys for more flamboyant cricketers. But if the team selection is done on that basis, then it is a matter of concern.

Many fans thought Pujara was injured and not available to play in the first Test. To them, that felt like the only possible explanation for his exclusion from the already fragile Indian batting order.

Not long ago, a former Indian team captain had written that all the nice guys were being left out and that getting a different hairstyle or some body art had become important to get picked in the team. Indian cricket fans will be hoping that that is not the case, and that players are selected wholly based on the contribution they make to the team.