Three Tests and a temptation at No. 3

In Indian cricket, security is often a mirage. Even those who earn trust must keep proving they deserve it, innings by innings. Especially in a transitioning side, roles are rarely fixed for long. The silence between two low scores fills quickly with noise. That's why, just three Tests into his return, the Karun Nair question has already crept into selection chatter. Do India stick with him at No. 3, or pivot early to Sai Sudharsan?

In some ways, the answer was already given at Edgbaston. Nair, who batted at No. 6 in Leeds, moved up to first drop in Birmingham. Sudharsan made way, not for another top-order option, but for Washington Sundar, his Tamil Nadu statemate and a left-hander with all-round utility. It was a clear sign that the team management, while excited by Sudharsan's future, believe Nair has earned the right to own this present. And if you've watched him bat this series, it's easy to see why.

31, 26, 40, 14. Those are Nair's four innings so far at No.3. Not flattering on paper, but they don't tell the full story. Three times he's walked in with India having lost an opener for 15 or fewer. Each time, he's brought immediate rhythm: crisp drives, fluent timing, a sense of control. He hasn't just survived these early passages; at times, he's shaped them. Until, inevitably, the moment of lapse.

The tactics against him have been telling. England have offered the full ball, sensing he doesn't always stretch fully into it. Nair has driven those away elegantly. But it's the ones on the shorter end of a good length that have drawn his mistakes. He tends to defend with a slightly angled bat, slicing across the line from an initial position pointing at gully, and deliveries in that corridor have induced the edge more than once.

The fourth-innings dismissal at Lord's was perhaps the cruelest. Nair shouldered arms to a straight ball from Brydon Carse. Perhaps he failed to pick it late in the evening against the rather unique prospect of the MCC members seated in front of the sightscreen at Lord's, but it was a misjudgement that struck flush on the bony part of his knee, missing the pad entirely. It stung. Not just for how it looked, but for how well he and KL Rahul had settled in before that, and for how India unraveled after.

The murmurs for change don't stem from Nair looking out of place, far from it. They come from a sense that he hasn't quite kicked on. And from who waits in the wings. Sudharsan, just 23, brings the promise of long-term returns and the value of a left-handed presence. This tour may well have been his finishing school. But there's still time. And perhaps, there should be.

There's some history too to all of this, though it may not fit this moment quite right. In 1996, also on a tour of England, Sanjay Manjrekar, then 31, picked up an ankle injury and made way for a 23-year-old Rahul Dravid at Lord's. Though it was the left-handed Sourav Ganguly who first slotted in at No. 3, the baton eventually passed to Dravid, and with it, two and a half decades of stability in a pivotal position. First Dravid. Then Cheteshwar Pujara.

India have been chasing that stability again ever since Pujara's decline post-2020. And here's Nair, not quite in the same mould, but like Pujara, a batter who's muscled his way back through sheer domestic weight. Now, finally, he has a run at a slot that historically demands both patience and protection.

Which is why age cannot be the only lens. Nair may be 33, but his method is compact and positive, underpinned by the composure that comes with long seasons behind him. And that still offers value. This top order, for the first time in a while, is beginning to show signs of coherence. KL Rahul's pairing with Yashasvi Jaiswal has ended the roulette up top. Shubman Gill at No. 4 has clicked immediately. Why rattle the chain now?

Gill, as captain, spoke in his first press conference about creating security within the squad. It would be inconsistent to bench Nair after just three Tests, especially when, by the coaching staff's own admission, he has looked sound. "We feel his rhythm is good, his tempo is good. We want more runs from the three. But the message is mainly, let's really focus on what we've done well and tidy up the little things that have cost us results, essentially," said Ryan ten Doeschate in Beckenham this week.

That line - "we want more runs from the three" - is an acknowledgement, not a warning. It frames Nair as a work-in-progress, not a failed experiment. It invites patience.

And this is not an Indian dilemma alone. Across the world, teams are grappling with the same uncertainty at No. 3. In the opposition camp, one quiet outing from Ollie Pope is enough to spark calls for Jacob Bethell, a prodigious left-hander waiting for a look-in. Australia recently dropped Marnus Labuschagne, handing the No.3 slot to Cameron Green. South Africa pushed Wiaan Mulder up to first drop, and not just in any match, but a World Test Championship Final.

Amid the churn, there have been some success stories, but largely in Asia. Dinesh Chandimal averages 50.35 at No. 3. Will Young, stepping in for Kane Williamson on New Zealand's tour of India last year, had a series to remember. Shubman Gill started well in the role last year since having to move one spot down post Virat Kohli's retirement. Since the start of 2023, there have been 13 centuries by No. 3s in Asia, more than the rest of the world combined (14). But by and large, even this most traditional of roles has been destabilised in the game at this moment.

Yet India can be different. They've been different. For decades, No. 3 was their bedrock, one less thing to worry about. It can be again, if they let it. Sudharsan's time will come. He already looks like a batter who could shape the next decade. But this moment, this challenge in England, belongs to Nair, someone who's done the grind, seen the shift, and returned. If ever there was a moment to back experience and shape a role rather than audition it, it is now.

The question is whether India can hold that belief long enough for it to show.