India faces selection dilemma over No. 3 spot

Karun Nair landed in England with the hope of reviving his Test profession. A dominating home season meant he acquired another likelihood to show his mettle on the highest degree.

But three matches into the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, Karun has simply 131 runs to his title and is the one top-four batter from both aspect who has not scored a fifty.

Heading to Manchester for the fourth Test, the Indian group administration must determine whether or not to offer him one other alternative or discover a special choice.

The legendary Farokh Engineer believes that B. Sai Sudharsan ought to be introduced again in at No. 3 at Old Trafford. The left-hander has spent the utmost variety of time on the nets since being benched after the opening Test in Leeds, the place he scored 30 within the second innings after falling for a duck on his debut.

(*3*) Engineer advised The Hindu.

“You dropped him after just one game. It is important to back a young player and give him a long rope,” Engineer added.

 Sai Sudharsan made 0 and 30 on his debut.
| Photo Credit:
PTI

To his credit score, Karun has gotten off to respectable begins at No. 3 and infrequently succeeded in taking the shine off the brand new ball. The 33-year-old hasn’t regarded nervous, nor did the surfaces on supply bother him. But, even then, large scores have eluded him, leading to a median of 21.83.

As per Cricviz information, at No.3, Karun’s false-short per cent is 20.9, the fourth-lowest for any top-order batter on this collection. Only Ok.L. Rahul, Shubman Gill and Joe Root rank higher than him on this metric.

Karun, although, has been at fault for not being aggressive sufficient — 43.9 per cent of all his photographs have been of the defensive type; solely Sai Sudharsan has had a much bigger share of such strokes.

Karun’s dot ball proportion has been 73.8, the third-highest amongst all top-four batters on this collection. Going on the defensive hasn’t fairly helped him. While India’s batting, barring the middle-order collapse within the second innings at Lord’s, has regarded fairly stable, No. 3 stays an enormous fear.

Since 2020, India has tried 11 completely different gamers in that slot. It’s essential to have stability in such a key place, one thing that was supplied for almost a decade by Cheteshwar Pujara.

The Saurashtra batter amassed 6529 runs at a median of 44.41 from 155 innings at No. 3, the second-most by any batter in that place since his Test debut. While Gill regarded set to be his successor, having performed 17 video games at No. 3 and scored 1019 runs at 37.74 between 2021 and 2025, he has since dropped right down to No. 4.

India’s struggles with the one-down place although aren’t in isolation. Nearly all Test-playing nations are looking for a long-term occupant at No. 3. It stays to be seen if India sticks with Karun or reverts to Sai Sudharsan.