India faces selection dilemma over No. 3 spot

Karun Nair landed in England with the hope of reviving his Test career. A dominating domestic season meant he got one more chance to prove his mettle at the highest level.

But three matches into the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, Karun has just 131 runs to his name and is the only top-four batter from either side who has not scored a fifty.

Heading to Manchester for the fourth Test, the Indian team management needs to decide whether to give him another opportunity or explore a different option.

The legendary Farokh Engineer believes that B. Sai Sudharsan should be brought back in at No. 3 at Old Trafford. The left-hander has spent the maximum number of time at the nets since being benched after the opening Test in Leeds, where he scored 30 in the second innings after falling for a duck on his debut.

“Karun has had his chances, but he couldn’t capitalise. That position is most important, and he hasn’t even had a fifty. Since there aren’t too many options available, bring Sai Sudharsan in. Being a left-hander, he could come in handy,” Engineer told 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, Karun has gotten off to decent starts at No. 3 and often succeeded in taking the shine off the new ball. The 33-year-old hasn’t looked nervous, nor did the surfaces on offer trouble him. But, even then, big scores have eluded him, resulting in an average of 21.83.

As per Cricviz data, at No.3, Karun’s false-short per cent is 20.9, the fourth-lowest for any top-order batter in this series. Only K.L. Rahul, Shubman Gill and Joe Root rank better than him in this metric.

Karun, though, has been at fault for not being aggressive enough — 43.9 per cent of all his shots have been of the defensive kind; only Sai Sudharsan has had a bigger share of such strokes.

Karun’s dot ball percentage has been 73.8, the third-highest among all top-four batters in this series. Going on the defensive hasn’t quite helped him. While India’s batting, barring the middle-order collapse in the second innings at Lord’s, has looked quite solid, No. 3 remains a big worry.

Since 2020, India has tried 11 different players in that slot. It’s important to have stability in such a key position, something that was provided for nearly a decade by Cheteshwar Pujara.

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

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