Senior India batter Cheteshwar Pujara opined that India might need a couple of series to figure out the No. 4 spot after Virat Kohli stepped down from Test cricket, who made his retirement call official on Monday, May 12 in a social media post.
Now, the departing of the Delhi-born has opened the discussion on who will fill the No. 4 spot in the Indian Test team.
Pujara admitted that the management will need time to figure out the suitable player for the Kohli’s position in the Indian Test setup. The 36-year-old cricketer batted at No. 4 in 99 red-ball games for the Indian team after Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement in November 2013. Ajinkya Rahane, on the other hand, played nine
“We will need a couple of series to figure out who is well suited to bat at No. 4, because it’s an important position. You need your best batter to bat at No. 4. And at this time, I think it’s still a spot where the team management will have to figure out who is the most suited player at No. 4,” Pujara told ESPNcricinfo.
India’s first series after two legendary players’ retirement (Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma) will be the five-match Test series against England, which will also kickstart the new ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle. India used four players in the No. 4 spot during the home series in 2024 against England in Kohli’s absence. The 37-year-old mentioned that it is early times to finalise a batter for No. 4 and insisted that someone should perform well in England tour to fill the spot.
“There are a lot of players who are making their way into the playing XI, no one has a secured spot at this stage. It’s a process which will take some time. It’s still early days to make a call, but it will be important to see who performs well in England because someone who can perform well in England can have that No. 4 spot,” the Rajkot-born cricketer added.
Shubman Gill, who kind of replaced Pujara in the Indian team to bat at 3, has been conceded as an option by the latter. However, Pujara also reckoned that the youngster is used to facing hard balls when the ball is new. Notably, Gill has batted in 32 Tests since making his debut in December 2020 and in the majority of them, he has batted at the top.
“He [Gill] is an option, definitely. But he has been batting at No. 3. Does he want to shift his spot? Does he want to bat at No. 4? We’ll have to see. Shubman is someone who is more capable of playing the new balls. He has been opening the innings earlier, before he started batting at No. 3. He prefers to bat when the ball is slightly hard and new. Will he be able to manage with the old ball? That is a big question at this stage,” he added.
The Indian Test legend reckoned that the 25-year-old is best suited in the top order, but can be a valuable option if he performs in the No. 4 spot.
“Since he has batted well with the new ball, I would still say that he should be batting in [the] top three, which is his ideal position, which suits him well. If he bats at No. 4 in England and if he can be successful at that position, then, yes, he can be a No. 4 for the Indian team,” he concluded.