India in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2023, is leading by 2-0 against Australia. Cheteshwar Pujara featured in his 100th test match in the 2nd game of BGT. Wasim Jaffer thinks that Shreyas Iyer can succeed the veteran batter at the No.3 position for Men in Blue.
Former Indian opener thinks Shreyas Iyer is the ideal replacement for Pujara-
“I think Shreyas Iyer is the best option to succeed Cheteshwar Pujara at No.3. He has batted at No.3 for Mumbai and he is an attacking batter. If someone can come in at No.3 and score intently, putting the bowlers on the backfoot will do India a lot of good. Pujara has been brilliant at No.3,” said Jaffer.
Cheteshwar Pujara scored an unbeaten 31 runs in the second innings of the last test match while chasing 115 runs against the visitors in BGT. The 35-year-old debuted for Men in Blue in 2010, he has scored 19 tons for his side during his 13 years long career.
Outdoors in Indore ? pic.twitter.com/twmzpacEux
— Shreyas Iyer (@ShreyasIyer15) February 28, 2023
Iyer sealed his place on the Test side after an impressive 2022 season. The 28-year-old made his Test debut against New Zealand at Green Park in 2021. The Mumbai-born cricketer has scored 640 runs for India in 8 longer formats of the game and averages almost 50, the right-hander has smashed a century and five half-centuries for Men in Blue.
In a match where run-machine Virat Kohli scripted history by becoming the fastest player to complete 25,000 international runs, Pujara achieved a massive feat as he recorded his 100th appearance in the longest format for team India, joining the likes of Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, India’s top-order batter Pujara became the 13th Indian cricketer to feature in 100 Test matches.
Ravindra Jadeja in the last game became the fastest Indian to take 250 test wickets and score 2500 runs, Kohli also broke Virender Sehwag’s run tally of 1738 runs in BGT at Delhi. India opted to bat first against Australia in the 3rd Test of the BGT at Indore’s Holkar Cricket Stadium.
Rohit Sharma-led side will be looking to win this match to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final, Asian giants need to win at least three test matches in the four-match series to qualify for the WTC final. The home side has already retained the BGT trophy four consecutive times after the last test match win.