Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has opined on the significance of the No. 3 position in the Indian team’s batting order ahead of the fourth Test against England. He shared that Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli excelled at No. 4 when Rahul Dravid and Cheteshwar Pujara did well at No. 3.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “No. 3 is important. It’s absolutely critical. Let me tell you a beautiful stat. In Sachin Tendulkar’s golden era in Tests, when he scored a lot of runs, it was coincidentally also Rahul Dravid’s best time in Test cricket. There were massive partnerships between Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, and both flourished.”

“It was identical with Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara. The best of Virat came with the best of Pujara. When the No. 3 does well, the No. 4 automatically starts doing well, provided there is a lot of quality there, as Tendulkar and Virat had. So No. 3 has been a problem area,” he further added.

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“I won’t vote in Washi’s favor at the moment because you are playing in England, and the next match is in Manchester, where the ball moves. Washi is a good batter, but is he our best No. 3 option? No. 3 is not an experimental position. It’s not a position where you would want to send an all-rounder,” he again shared.

However, Aakash Chopra added that India should persist with Karun Nair at No. 3 for one more Test and play either Sai Sudharsan or Abhimanyu Easwaran in the final Test, if Nair isn’t among the runs in Manchester as well.

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“I would say look at Karun Nair as his last chance. It’s good if he does well in this match, or else you can say that thirties and forties are not good enough, and then you move to either Sai Sudharsan or Abhimanyu Easwaran. You feel at times that you should go to Sai Sudharsan only because you played him the first match,” he said.

“With the same token, you think what Abhimanyu Easwaran has done wrong. You take him on every tour, but don’t play him even one match, and when you play, you shouldn’t write his obituary after just one match. So it is going to be a tough one. I would say play Karun Nair one more game, and if you don’t wish to play him, then go to Sai Sudharsan, because you had played him a match earlier,” Aakash Chopra concluded.