India's No.3 Batting Spot in Limbo

As India prepares for a one-off Test against Afghanistan in Mullanpur from June 6, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has openly admitted that the team has not been successful in identifying a consistent batsman for the crucial No.3 position in Test cricket. Following the retirements of stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, the team has experimented with various players at this spot without clear success.

The current setup sees Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul as the first-choice openers, with Shubman Gill at No. 4. The No. 3 position has been a revolving door for players like Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, and even Washington Sundar. In the last Test assignment against South Africa, Sundar was tried at No. 3 in the first Test in Kolkata, but Sudharsan returned in the second Test in Guwahati when Gill was injured. Despite these changes, the team remains undecided on the best candidate for the role.

"Yeah, look there's been a lot of changes in that spot and that's not ideal. I think you need to look at the incumbents for that role and maybe stick with someone. It's a difficult position to bat and a very important position to bat," ten Doeschate said.

Challenges of the Schedule

Ten Doeschate acknowledged that the team's schedule complicates the decision-making process. After the Afghanistan Test, India's next red-ball assignment is in Sri Lanka in late August, where they will play just two Tests. This irregular schedule makes it challenging to commit to a single player for the No. 3 spot. However, he emphasized the need to make a decision and trust the chosen player to grow into the role quickly.

"Dev [Devdutt Padikkal] comes in with a ton of runs in domestic cricket across all the formats and obviously Sai's got a nice IPL with Gujarat, so they're both in good form. I think whoever plays, they'll be given a bit of rope. It's quite difficult with one Test match now and then we don't play a Test match for another two months and then you play two Test matches and then you don't play for a while. So we need to factor that in but I think the main point around is we want to make a decision and then trust that person to grow into the role and ideally quickly because where we find ourselves in the WTC table, it's obviously we don't have time to bet in now. It's probably something we could have done better leading up to this is nailing down that number 3 spot," he added.

Post-IPL Transition Challenges

India's squad is transitioning from the high-intensity Indian Premier League (IPL) to the demands of Test cricket, with six players having participated in the IPL final just five days before the Test against Afghanistan. Ten Doeschate acknowledged the challenge of adjusting to the different demands of Test cricket, including the need to shift sleep cycles and focus on different technical aspects.

"You're playing in the IPL final five days ago at night-time and now you've got to come and start a Test match early in the morning at 34, 35 degrees. Just another challenge on the road and the guys will take it on like they always do. My job is just to prepare the players for what's ahead of them. Sleep cycle is probably top of that list and that's been addressed," Ten Doeschate said.

The assistant coach also emphasized the importance of 'detoxing' the players from the habits of white-ball cricket to focus on the longer format. "You want to make sure guys are making decisions based on where the ball is pitched. You want to make a few technical tweaks on how you set up maybe and how you keep your bat shape and all those sort of things. The last two days and obviously today and tomorrow have been all about that. Just detoxing guys, making sure that those habits that are required to be successful in white ball cricket are put to bed and they focus on playing proper test cricket again," he said.