Selectors to reward Sai Sudharsan; Karun Nair in line for India return for England Tests - Report

The BCCI selectors will announce India’s Test squad for the away England tour on Saturday (May 24), and per the latest reports, they are unlikely to take any surprising decisions. While ace batter Shubman Gill remains the frontrunner to succeed Rohit Sharma as the new Test captain, talks of selectors rewarding Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair with spots in the Test squad are doing the rounds.

Following the IPL 2025 final on June 3, the Indian players will shift their attention to the five-match Test series against England starting June 20 in Leeds, for which the men's selection committee will meet in Mumbai over the weekend to finalise the squad.

A Cricbuzz report suggests that barring a few names, the Test squad would likely look the same as that that travelled Down Under for the previous tour. Outside of the batting greats Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who announced their Test retirements earlier this month, the Indian Test team would appear almost similar.

While the selectors are keen to have domestic giant Karun Nair on the board for the away England Tests, they are also sure of rewarding the left-handed Sudharsan for a brilliant batting display in the domestic tournaments and IPL 2025 lately.

During the past season, Karun was among runs across formats, scoring 863 runs in nine Ranji Trophy games, including four centuries, and 779 in eight contested Vijay Hazare Trophy matches, bettering his hundreds’ record (five).

On the other hand, Sudharsan, 23, is the leading run-getter thus far in IPL 2025, having scored 638 runs in 13 outings.

Both batters are part of the India-A squad for the three-match shadow tour, including two against the England Lions and one against the senior men’s team. While Karun would depart with the first batch within two days, the selectors named Sai for the second match as his IPL team (Gujarat Titans) reached the playoffs, which will conclude with the final in the first week of June.

However, unlike at GT, where he opens alongside Gill, Sai would not open in England, with the selectors likely sticking with the pair of KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top. Although the report suggested that head coach Gautam Gambhir has communicated his stance on the batting order, Sai’s batting position hasn’t been discussed yet.

Also, given that Gill might move down to number four, taking over the spot that two former greats – Sachin Tendulkar and Kohli occupied for close to 30 years combined, one of Sai or Nair would bat at number three.

Moreover, the selectors are also reported to have chatted about bringing back Test veteran Cheteshwar Pujara for the challenging England series; they are unlikely to go ahead with that as they wish to move forward and not fall back on their ageing stars.