Former England captain Nasser Hussain hailed Cheteshwar Pujara after the latter announced his retirement from Indian cricket a week back (August 24). Hussain pointed to the reluctance of modern batters like Shubman Gill and Joe Root to play at No. 3 in Tests, a role Pujara played to perfection for almost half a decade.The 37-year-old finished his stellar Test career with 7,195 runs at an average of 43.60, including 19 centuries, in 103 outings. Pujara's best was seen in back-to-back tours of Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21, when he helped India win both series by 2-1 margins.Talking about the defiant right-hander on the Sky Sports YouTube channel, Hussain said (37:37):"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."He continued:"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."Pujara batted 155 innings at No. 3 in Tests, scoring 6,529 runs at an average of 44.41 with 18 tons. Meanwhile, Gill struggled at No. 3 in Tests, averaging under 38 in 30 innings.However, he moved down to No. 4 in his first Test series as captain in the recent tour of England and finished with an average of 82 at the position in the series."He protected the middle order from the new ball" - Nasser HussainNasser Hussain praised Cheteshwar Pujara for his ability to bat time and protect the Indian middle-order from the new ball in Tests. The right-hander was the Player of the series in India's first-ever Test series win in Australia in 2018/19, scoring 521 runs at an average of 74.42 with three centuries."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 (via the aforementioned source).Pujara struggled in the 2023 season, averaging under 26 in five Tests with a lone half-century. He was subsequently dropped from the Indian Test side after the 2023 World Test Championship (WTC) final loss against Australia in what turned out to be his last red-ball game for the country.