Sai Sudharsan or Devdutt Padikkal at no.3? Coach says 'Whoever plays they'll be given a bit of a run'

Ever since Cheteshwar Pujara was dropped and then retired, India have not had a no.3 batter who has been able to make the spot his own in the Test side. As India resume their World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 campaign with one-off Test, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate wants stability for any batter who takes up the no.3 role, whether it is Sai Sudharsan and Devdutt Padikkal.

Apart from the two, India have tried current skipper Shubman Gill, Karun Nair and Washington Sundar at no.3 but it did not pay dividends. Ten Doeschate indicated long rope for the batter who gets the role.

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"There's been a lot of changes in that spot and that's not ideal, you know. You need to look at the incumbents for that role and and maybe stick with someone," former Netherlands all-rounder said in the press conference on June 4 in new Chandigarh.

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Ten Doeschate acknowledged that both batters have been in form whether it is domestic cricket or in the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. He said that the no.3 role is difficult, especially when the Test matches are spaced too far. India’s last Test was against South Africa in December. After the one-off Test against Afghanistan, India will head to Sri Lanka for a two-Test series in August.

"It's a difficult position to bat in and a very important position to bat. Dev comes in with a ton of runs in domestic cricket across all the formats and obviously Sai's been high on runs in IPL with Gujarat, so they're both in good form.

"Whoever plays they'll be given a bit of a run. That's quite difficult with one Test match now, and then we don't play a Test match for another two months, and then we play two Test matches, and then you don't play for a while. So, you know, we need to factor that in," Ten Doeschate said.

Urgency to make no.3 decision highlighted

Despite the need to give a long rope, Ten Doeschate also acknowledged that the decision to finalise and back a batter for no.3 role should be taken quickly.

"The main point around there is we want to make a decision and then trust that person to grow into the role, and ideally quickly. Where we find ourselves in the WTC table? It's probably something we could have done better leading up to this is maybe backing someone in a different spot," the Dutch coach said.

Sudharsan vs Padikkal in Test numbers

Sudharsan has played six Tests so far, scoring 302 runs, averaging 27.45. He has two fifties in Tests. His first-class average is below 40 as well.

On the other hand, Padikkal played two Tests in 2024, scoring 90 runs from three innings, including a fifty against England on debut. His first-class average is 42.67.