- By Namrata Vijay
- Fri, 18 Jul 2025 10:02 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
IND vs ENG 4th Test: Ryan Ten Doeschate, who is the assistant coach of the Men in Blue, has opened up on Karun Nair's performance during the ongoing Test series, as he has continuously failed to convert his start into big scores. Nair returned to the Test side after seven years by performing brilliantly in domestic tournaments, but has failed to repeat his heroics during the ongoing series.
After playing in three matches till now, he has scored 131 runs at an average of 21.83, with his highest score being 40 runs. He has been coming into bat at the No.3 position since the last two Test matches and has scored 36, 21, and 40 runs, and has thus failed to convert them into big knocks. Ryan Ten Doeschate talked about Nair's performance and reckoned that he has got the right rhythm and tempo, but admitted that the team wanted more from their top-order batters.
"Even someone like Karun, we feel his rhythm is good, his tempo is good. We want more runs from the three. But the message is mainly, let's focus on what we've done well and tidy up the little things that have cost us results, essentially," Ten Doeschate told reporters during the pre-match press conference.
At the same time, he also emphasized that although the batters might have scored lots of runs in this series till now, the batting collapses are one of the biggest reasons they are behind in this series.
"That might be counter-intuitive when you're 2-1 down in the series. But we feel like the guys have been excellent for large parts of the series. The repetition of losing lots of wickets in a very short space of time has been the key feature of the two losses. Probably both times in Headingley and overnight and first thing in the morning at Lord's, we feel cost us the game was losing six wickets for 40 again cost us the game,” he said.
The Shubman Gill-led side is currently trailing by 2-1 in this series, and that's why the team management would be making a few changes in their playing XI and dropping a few inconsistent players. And that's why Nair's position is uncertain since Sai Sudarsan and Abhimanyu Easwaran are the other batters who could replace him.
Sudarsan did feature in the series opener in Leeds, where he scored 0 and 30 runs during both innings. Since the visitors will aim to bounce back during the fourth Test, which will be held from next week, there are high chances that Nair will be dropped from the playing XI.
