Former England skipper Nasser Hussain showered praise on Cheteshwar Pujara for delivering the goods for India while batting at one drop in Test cricket. Hussain said Pujara performed the tough role of batting at number three with great success.

Pujara played 103 Tests and 5 ODIs for India after making his debut back in 2010. He scored 7,195 Test runs at an average of 43.60, with 19 hundreds and 35 fifties.

The right-hander provided solidarity while batting at one drop after taking the crucial position from former Indian skipper Rahul Dravid. 

Hussain highlighted that Joe Root and Shubman Gill are reluctant to bat at one down in the red-ball version.

Hussain said on Sky Sports YouTube Channel, “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 in the England side, Joe Root doesn’t want to do it. Shubman Gill doesn’t want to do it for India since he has got the captaincy. He wants to bat at 4.”

“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.”

Hussain noted that Pujara played a key role in protecting the middle order from the new ball with his solid batting technique.

“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 like how he was when he batted. Very calm, quietly spoken and talks a lot of sense,” said Hussain.

Overall, Pujara finishes with 21301 runs from 278 first-class games at an average of 51.82 and 66 hundreds and three triple hundreds.