Who among Sai Sudharsan or Karun Nair should be India’s new number three in Tests? Ravi Ashwin answers

With Sai Sudharsan replacing Karun Nair in the Manchester Test against England, debate over who deserves to seal the number three spot began, with former Indian ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin sharing his thoughts on the same. While Nair failed to own that spot across the previous two Tests, scoring 111 across four innings, Sudharsan almost hit a jackpot with his gritty 61 off 151 balls in his return game for India at Old Trafford. Ashwin addressed the elephant in the room, talking about how playing Nair at a position he doesn’t bat at, even in domestic cricket, created a mental block in his head, leading to mediocre outings in the UK.

Karun Nair’s Test career is a tale of two sides. While he found immense success on his first run, including scoring a 303 against England in Chennai in only his third Test before an array of poor scores saw him out of the team, his return after eight years lasted just three Tests. Nair got out on a four-ball duck batting at number six in Leeds before the team promoted him to number three, where his best score of 40 (thus far in this series) came in the previous Test at the Lord’s.

The management decided to drop him for the Manchester Test and brought in Sudharsan in his place.

“Karun Nair has never played at No. 3. Now, by playing him at No. 3, you have put his mindset in a block,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
He, however, praised Sai for soaking up the pressure of doing well on his return after getting dropped after just one Test (at Headingley).

“Credit to Sai Sudharsan, because it is not easy being a youngster after getting dropped and with India 1-2 behind in the series to come into the fourth Test and respond the way he did. I think he has to own that No. 3 for the near future to be able to give a bit of solidity for the team,” Ashwin continued.

Talking highly of his fellow state player, who got out on 61 playing a pull shot to Ben Stokes late on day one in Manchester, Ashwin said, “He showed that sort of solidity. He was able to leave the ball. He earned the right to score those runs. I am a bit upset because I am a huge well-wisher of him. He could have scored a hundred.”

Meanwhile, Team India sits comfortably after the first day’s play despite losing Rishabh Pant to injury, as their scorecard reads 264 for four, with two all-rounders – Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur at the crease.