The Indian team has performed brilliantly in the five -match Test series against England. In all three matches played so far in the series, Team India is mostly ahead of the host team. The most important contribution to this has been our batting, which has scored many runs in difficult situations in England.
Nevertheless, India is 1-2 in the series after three matches. Meanwhile, the biggest problem of the Indian team has been the number 3 batting position. On this tour, apart from the No. 3 batters, India's top 7 batting positions have scored at least one half century. The contribution of number 3 batters in Test cricket becomes important because this position has scored the highest 399 centuries in the win.
On the tour of England on Karun Nair and Sai Sudarshan No. 3 Sai Sudarshan and Karun Nair have batted at this place for India on a tour of England. But both batters proved to be failed and no batters could cross the 40 mark once.
However, the problem of No. 3 Better for India is not new. From the beginning of this decade ie 2020, the average world of our number 3 batters is ranked eighth in the average world. In the last five years, we have tried 11 batters at this location. But in 52 matches, they have scored at an average of 30.83. In this case, we are just better than Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland and West Indies.
Pujara's 4000 runs between Karun's two 40+ runs India's No. 3 Karun Nair has scored 505 runs in 9 Tests in his career. 303 runs have come in a single innings. Karun, who is trying to replace Pujara, has only reached 40+ in his career. Pujara has scored 3939 Tests between these two 40+ scores.
The worst average number-3 position on England tour Both Karun Nair and Sai Sudarshan, who batted at No. 3 position on England tour, have proved to be flop batters. Sudarshan made the Test debut in the first match of the series, but was able to score Zero in the first innings and 30 in the second inning.
After only one chance, he was dropped from the team. After this, Karun assumed responsibility for this place in the next two matches. But he too was able to score only 111 runs in four innings. In this series, the worst average of our top-7 batters of No. 3 Better is 23.5.
After Dravid, Pujara took responsibility, but who after that? In this century, Team India played the two best Test Betters No. 3 position. These two batters were Rahul Dravid and Cheteshwar Pujara. Apart from these two players, no one else has played 50 Test matches on this position. Dravid scored 10501 runs at an average of 53.30 in 135 Tests. After retirement, Pujara took over the batting at this place and scored 6529 runs at an average of 44.41 in 95 Tests. However, since Pujara has been released, Team India has not yet found any reliable player at this place.
Going to Shubhman Gill's No. 4 revealed weakness After Pujara was released due to the bad form, Shubhman began to play on No. 3. He scored 972 runs at an average of 37.38 in 16 matches between July 2023 and January 2025. Gill scored three centuries from the four centuries that hit this place in the last five years. But after Kohli's retirement, he went to No. 4. Because of this, the problem of the Indian team was re -opened.
Image Credit: Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).