Pujara didn't pick current India head coach and former opener Gautam Gambhir in his top 3 picks.
Throughout his career, KL Rahul has been one of India's most adaptable batters in different positions. In the red-ball format, Rahul has spent the majority of his innings at the top for India, where he has scored 4,235 runs at an average of over 37. In Tests, the veteran has amassed 3,781 runs at an average of nearly 39, including 11 centuries.
Rahul is a 50/50 choice among Indians for a top five Test opener, according to Pujara, who was hesitant to put him in the top five. Instead, the former right-hander gave away his top three Indian openers.
Speaking on Cricinfo’s Quick Singles segment, Pujara named Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag, and Murali Vijay as his picks for India’s all-time top three openers in Test cricket.
With 10,122 runs at an average of 51.12, including 34 hundreds, in 125 games, Sunil Gavaskar became the first batter in Test history to surpass the 10,000-run threshold. Over 9,500 of Gavaskar's Test runs came as an opener, even though he occasionally batted at other positions.
When it came to Test batting, Sehwag was the opposite of Gavaskar; his best defense was attack. Similar to Gavaskar, Sehwag scored the majority of his 8,586 Test runs (8,207), including 22 of his 23 Test hundreds, as an opener.
Murali Vijay scored 3,982 Test runs, of which 3,880 runs came at the top as an opener. All 12 of Vijay's Test centuries also came as an opener.
Current Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir is the most unexpected exclusion from Pujara's choices of top three Indian Test openers. Over 4,000 of Gambhir's 4,154 runs at an average of nearly 42 came as an opener during his Test career.