The No. 3 position is arguably the most important position in Test cricket. There is hardly anything tougher than facing the new ball, and that’s exactly what most No. 3’s do. More often than not, the openers don’t even last the first burst. To blunt the new ball and to glue the innings together, that’s what a No. 3 does. Some of the most prolific batters have assumed the position—Don Bradman, Kumar Sangakkara, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid, and so on.
You could argue that the Indian cricket team has had the best batters at number one for the last 30 years. Dravid averaged almost 53, scored over 10,000 runs and then Cheteshwar Pujara took over the role. Naturally, he couldn’t live up to Dravid, but he was of the same mold. Pujara blocked the ball for ages, had the appetite to score big, and was as dogged as they come. From 1996 to 2023, that’s what Team India had known—a No. 3 batter’s job is to blunt to ball and have an impregnable defense.
Shubman Gill’s No. 3 journey
When Shubman Gill took over Pujara, everyone had their doubts. He assumed the role in July 2023, and until January 2024, he played 7 innings, scoring just 119 runs at 19.83. Not great. In his defense, all of these matches came away from home (West Indies and South Africa). The issue was that Gill seemed jittery at the start of his innings, had a visible weakness against the incoming ball, and played with hard hands. You can say these are the biggest red flags for a No. 3 batter.
Given his immense talent, the Indian management, which included Dravid as the head coach, continued to back him, and he came good. In the next series he played, he scored 452 runs at 56.5 in 9 innings and hit two hundreds. He was finally finding himself at home. India has proved to be one of the hardest places to bat in the world alongside South Africa in the last couple of years, and so you can’t just refuse to accept Gill’s success just because these runs came in familiar conditions of home.
After a 6-month test rest, Gill has returned to the No. 3 spot where he’d left off. He compensated for his duck in the first innings by scoring an imperious century in the second dig. A used a blend of attack and defense. He raced off the blocks, but when the second wicket fell, he knew the time was to consolidate. Then, in the first session of the third day in Chennai, he switched gears once again.
He was just 15 runs short when the second session started, and luckily for him, Pant hogged all the limelight. The wicketkeeper was 20 runs behind him and raced to his 6th century before him. Gill, meanwhile, carefully reached his 5th Test hundred in 161 balls.
Australia success, the only way to be accepted
Gill potentially still has 8 innings to play at home and boosts his record at the position even more before the real challenge begins. In mid-November, Team India will travel to Australia for the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Gill was one of the reasons why a depleted Indian side beat the Aussies in 2020-21 and won the series 2-1. But, back then, he was opening the innings and was playing his first Test series.
There was no pressure on him. He was a young kid who was trying to make a name for himself. Things won’t be the same now. He’ll be going there with a 5-year international experience, 30 Test matches, and a T20 World Cup victory. His record in Australia is exemplary (average of 51.8), and Gill will be expected to replicate what he did 4 years ago. Not only that, Cheteshwar Pujara was arguably the biggest reason why India beat Australia twice.
That will be the true challenge for him. If he wishes to be truly accepted as India’s No. 3, he must live up to what Pujara, his predecessor, did and help India to a hattrick of victories down under.
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