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Hanuma Vihari
Hanuma Vihari, part of India's back to back series wins in Australia, reckons the services of veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara will be be dearly missed when the team aims for a hat-trick Down Under later this year. The five Test series begins in Perth from November 22. Out of favour Pujara was the leading run-getter in the 2018-19 series with 521 off 1258 balls and was once again the backbone of Indian batting three years later when he accumulated 271 runs off 928 balls. Across the two teams, the 103-Test veteran by far faced the number of balls to wear out the opposition attack comprising Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. As another Border-Gavaskar Trophy is on the horizon, Vihari wondered who can play Pujara's role this time around. "Pujara will a big miss. he was the backbone of the batting line-up in the last two series for Team India. He took blows, he batted time, he stayed there for a long time, he saw the new ball, he got runs. He made the job easier for the .
The bitter spat between Hanuma Vihari and Andhra Cricket Association took a fresh turn as the state body on Monday announced an inquiry against the senior batter, who had accused the ACA of forcing him to resign from captaincy at the start of the ongoing season. Drama unfolded after Andhra's campaign in the Ranji Trophy ended in a defeat on Monday as Vihari announced that he will never play for the side due to "mistreatment" by the state association. Complaints were received from teammates, support staff and ACA administrators about Vihari's use of foul language and abusive behaviour. ACA will conduct a thorough inquiry into all complaints and the due course of action will be communicated, said the ACA in a media release. Vihari had also hit out at a reserve team-mate (son of a politician) who he alleged had asked his father to take action against him after the veteran player shouted at him during a match. ACA stated that it had received a complaint from the junior player about Vih
Lashing out at the Andhra Cricket Association for mistreatment, senior batter Hanuma Vihari on Monday said he will never play for the state again. Andhra's campaign in the on-going Ranji Trophy came to an end when they lost to Madhya Pradesh by four runs in the quarterfinals on Monday. Sad part is the association thinks that players have to listen to whatever they say and players are there because of them. I've decided that I'll never play for Andhra where I lost my self-respect. "I love the team. I love the way we're growing every season but the association doesn't want us to grow, Vihari wrote on Instagram. The middle-order batter, who has played 16 Tests for India, started the season as Andhra captain but stepped down after the first match against last year's runners-up Bengal. Ricky Bhui led the team for the rest of the season, and he now leads the season's run chart with 902 runs. At the time, Vihari attributed his decision to move away from leadership role due to personal .