India coach Ravi Shastri feels that Cheteshwar Pujara should remain in the top grade even after the BCCI and Committee of Administrators (COA) come up without the revised central contracts based on new remuneration structure.
Pujara as of now is in Grade ‘A’ of Central Contracts alongwith Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay.
Speaking during an event of journalist Rajdeep Sardesai’s new book ‘Democracy’s XI’, Shastri said: “It is very important that someone like Cheteshwar Pujara is kept in the top bracket of central contract.”
Pujara plays only Tests and does not feature even in the IPL.
On the mutual respect between Dhoni and Kohli, Shastri was quoted as saying in a PTI report, “I have never seen Dhoni lose his cool. If he has, it must have been for 10 seconds. Kohli is still work in progress but he will certainly mature. I hear a lot of stories about their relationship but all those are not true. I have seen how much mutual respect the two have for each other.”
--By A Cricket Correspondent