Joe Root and Shubman Gill don’t want to bat at No.3 in Tests: Nasser Hussain

Former England captain and commentator Nasser Hussain has stated that the Indian Test captain Shubman Gill and former skipper Joe Root don’t want to bat at the No.3 position in the longest format of the game, as it’s not an easy position to bat at.

Speaking on Sky Sports' YouTube channel, Nasser heaped praise on Cheteshwar Pujara, who recently announced his retirement from all forms of Indian cricket, calling him a real old-school No.3 batter.

"A real old-school No. 3. And he had to take over from one of the all-time great No. 3s in Rahul Dravid. It's something that's a little bit lacking in international cricket - No. 3s. Even on the England side, Joe Root doesn't want to do it. Shubman Gill doesn't want to do it for India since he has the captaincy. He wants to bat at 4," Hussain said on the Sky Sports YouTube channel.

"In our era, your No. 3 was your best player, whether it be Viv Richards, Ricky Ponting, or Rahul Dravid. Not an easy position to do, but Pujara did it as well as anyone," he added.

Furthermore, Hussain also asserted that with his exceptional batting and defensive skills, Pujara defended the middle-order batters, such as Virat Kohli, against the new ball. Notably, Pujara’s calm and long knocks helped the Indian middle-order in putting up good knocks.

"Another one of the old-school batters is gone. A bat-for-your-life and over-my-dead-body sort of batter that played the ball late and produced some great innings, especially in Australia. He was loved by Indian fans for playing like that. And he protected the middle order, with the likes of Kohli in there, from the new ball. Working with him, he's exactly how he was when he batted-very calm, quietly spoken, and talks a lot of sense," Hussain observed.

Pujara played a total of 103 Tests, amassing 7195 runs at an average of 43.6 with 19 centuries and 35 half-centuries.

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