The fifth and final match of the five-match Test series between India and England is being played at the Oval in London. Team India captain Shubman Gill made four changes in the playing-11 for this match. Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Anshul Kamboj, and Rishabh Pant did not play this match. In their place, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Karun Nair, and Dhruv Jurel were included in the playing-11. After dropping Cheteshwar Pujara from the team, India has not been able to find a permanent player at number three so far. During this, Team India has tried many players, but has failed. Sudarshan was tried at number three in the first Test, then Karun Nair was also tried, but neither of them could do anything special while batting at number three. In such a situation, the search for a strong batsman at number three is on.
Sudarshan got a chance to bat at number three in the first Test. However, after the defeat in that Test, he was dropped from the next Test. Sudarshan could not open his account in the first innings at Headingley, while he scored 30 runs in the second innings. After this, Karun got a chance to bat at number three. Karun scored 31 and 26 runs at Edgbaston and 40 and 14 runs at Lord's. After this, Karun was also dropped for the Manchester Test, and Sudarshan was again trusted. Sudarshan scored 61 runs in the first innings, but then no runs came from his bat. He could not even open his account in the second innings of the Manchester Test. Then at the Oval, Sudarshan could score 38 runs in the first innings and 11 runs in the second innings.
In this way, Sudarshan's first international series at number three ended with 140 runs in six innings of three Tests. During this, his average was 23.3. At the same time, Karun scored 111 runs in four innings at number three. When Virat Kohli was part of the Test team, Gill was given the number three position. When Kohli retired, Gill was shifted to number four in place of Kohli, and he created history. At the same time, Pant has been very successful for some time at number five with Rahane. However, no permanent number three has been found since Gill moved out of number three.
Talking about the last 10 Tests, i.e., Australia tour, India has tried five players at number three so far. Apart from Gill, these include Devdutt Padikkal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, and Karun. Padikkal was dropped in the next Test after playing in the first Test against Australia. At the same time, Gill played at number three in the second and third Tests against Australia, but was dropped in the fourth Test. In the fourth Test, KL Rahul was asked to bat at number three. Then in the fifth Test against the Kangaroos, Gill returned to number three.
Then Sudarshan was made to bat at number three in the first Test against England. Then Karun Nair came in at number three in the second and third Tests. Sudarshan was made to bat at number three in the fourth and fifth Tests. In the 21st century, Rahul Dravid and then Cheteshwar Pujara ruled the number three position in Tests. Dravid scored 10,524 runs out of 13,288 runs in his Test career while batting at number three. Whereas, his successor, Pujara, scored 6529 runs out of 7195 runs in his Test career while batting at number three. However, like Dravid and Pujara, the Indian team is still waiting for a reliable number three.
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