Team India face a No 4 conundrum as tour of England beckons

Donald Bradman, arguably the greatest batsman in the history of cricket, had said on record that the best batsman in the side should bat at the No 3 position. His argument was that the batsman at “one drop” had to be the most accomplished batsman in the side, as he had to be strong against both pace and spin bowling. He may need to start batting as early as the second ball of the innings, which will require prowess against fast or swing bowling. Alternatively, his arrival can be delayed for a long time, in which case he needs to be proficient against spinners. Bradman believed that the batsman who followed the openers to the crease was the fulcrum around which the innings of the batting side revolved. And, as could be guessed, he himself batted in this position!

But, when it comes to Indian cricket, traditionally the best batsman in the playing eleven has batted at the No 4 position. Sachin Tendulkar monopolised this position during his playing days and Virat Kohli moved seamlessly to this spot when the former retired. Gundappa Viswanath also used to bat at this position during the 1970’s till he lost his place in the side towards end 1982. Before that, during the late 1940’s and early 50’s, it was Vijay Hazare who occupied this place in the batting order. It goes without saying that all of them were the best batsmen in the side. Even the great Sunil Gavaskar, when he decided to bat lower in the order in a few tests, preferred to bat at No 4 spot. Incidentally, it was when he batted at this position that he made his highest score of unbeaten 236!

A look at the history of Indian cricket will show that the team has done well whenever there was a top-quality batsman at this position. The worst phase for the national side in international cricket was during the second half of the 1950’s when this place was not occupied by the best batsman. When India won against England in 1971 and 1986, the no 4 spot in the batting order was occupied by Dilip Sardesai and Dilip Vengsarkar respectively. Sardesai was the mainstay of India batting during the tour to West Indies in 1971, where he had scored 642 runs in 5 tests, which included a double century and two hundreds, and was undoubtedly the best batsman in the side. Vengsarkar was going through a purple patch as a batsman during the 1986-88 period when he was one of the best willow wielders in the world. During the win in 2007, Tendulkar was there to man this spot and anchor the Indian batting during the whole series.

When the Shubman Gill-led team leaves for England for a five-test series in June, there is no certainty as to who will man the critical position in the batting order. In fact, the whole top order of Indian batting appears disorganised, with only Yashasvi Jaiswal certain about his position as an opening batsman. Though Gill has made his mark as an opening batsman, he batted at the No 3 position in the last series against Australia, leaving the job of opening the innings to KL Rahul and Jaiswal. Rahul, on the other hand, has batted in almost all positions in the order from No 1 to 6, though he found runs easier to come by whenever he opened the innings. 

Apart from the trio of Gill, Jaiswal and Rahul, the other players in the England-bound squad who can be considered as top or middle-order batsmen are Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Eswaran, Karun Nair and Rishabh Pant. Sudarshan is in excellent form, having earned his place in the squad through a string of outstanding performances in the 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). He is a top-order batsman, with the added experience of having played for Surrey in English county cricket, which should stand him in good stead during this tour. So, in all probability, he would be the first choice of the tour selection committee to play in the first Test starting at Leeds on June 20. 

Rishabh Pant is a certainty for one of the remaining two slots in the top and middle order, solely by virtue of his prowess as a batsman. Even though Pant was bogged down by a lean patch in the latest edition of IPL, his past performances with the willow in Test matches show what a dangerous player he can be, once he gets going. Hence, that will leave only one place open, for which there are two contenders- Abhimanyu Eswaran and Karun Nair. It is reasonable to expect that Karun may be favoured by the team management, both on account of his experience of batting in the middle order in the past as well as the form he has shown in the first-class circuit in India in the last couple of seasons.

In this scenario, who is best suited to bat at the No 4 position? Should it be Rahul, the senior-most in the lineup, or Gill, the one best equipped technically or Pant, the explosive and versatile willow wielder or Karun, the only original middle-order batsman in the side? It is interesting to note that out of the above four, only Rahul and Pant have batted in this position in Test matches. While Rahul has scored 108 runs in the two innings, including a knock of 86, Pant could make only 9 runs in his sole appearance at this position. Thus, it cannot be disputed that none of the batsmen in this squad have previous experience of handling the pressures that come with batting in this slot.

Since Rahul had a good run as an opener in Australia and could forge a decent partnership with Jaiswal at the top of the order during this series, team management might be loath to change this combination. Further, given the fact that four out of the six batsmen are suited to bat at the top of the order, in all likelihood, the responsibility of batting at No 4 position may fall on the shoulders of one of them. This leaves only Gill and Sudarshan, and it will be a blind call on the part of the team management as to who should go in at one drop and No 4 spot. The general consensus, amongst the experts and the media is that Gill may bat at No 4, leaving Sudarshan to man the one-drop place in the order.

Conventional wisdom demands that this spot should go to Karun Nair since he is the only middle-order batsman in the squad. But given the mix of players available for the team management to choose the final playing eleven, this logic is bound to take a backseat. In all likelihood, Pant and Karun Nair will bat at No 5 and 6 respectively, with either Ravindra Jadeja or Nitish Kumar Reddy following them.

India’s success with the bat on foreign soil during the last few years was built on the brilliance of Kohli, the solidity of Cheteshwar Pujara, the stoicism of Rahane, the class of Rohit Sharma and the versatility of Rahul besides gritty contributions from the blades of Ravichandran Ashwin, Jadeja, Hanuma Vihari etc with the bat. Out of the above, only Rahul and Jadeja remain in the side, which shows the degree of change that has taken place in the composition of the team and the extent of challenges that it faces on this tour.

This brings one to the question as to whether the selectors missed a trick or two by refusing to consider Ajinkya Rahane for this series. He would have fitted in easily at the No 4 position, having tons of experience of batting in this spot in tests. For the record, Rahane figures amongst the 20 top run-getters in both IPL and the last Ranji Trophy championship. He is still one of the best slip fielders in the country, besides being a supremely fit athlete. Further, he is amongst the few who would be able to whisper a word or two of wisdom to the skipper at critical times during the matches. Moreover, he had equipped himself well when recalled to the side for the finals of the World Test Championship in 2023. So, he would have been an asset had he been chosen to be part of this squad.

It is the norm for selectors the world over to provide team management with the services of senior players when the captain is new and relatively inexperienced. Ajit Wadekar had admitted that the presence of veterans Jaisimha and Salim Durani on the side and the advice they rendered were critical factors that helped the side to record the first-ever series win against West Indies on their soil in 1971. Though there is presently a coach and a full complement of supporting staff with the squad, this may not be a perfect substitute for having experienced seniors on the side. 

Presence of too many greenhorns in the squad, unimaginative selection, uncertainty regarding batsmen to man the key positions in batting order, absence of senior players with experience of playing in England and a brand new captain. This sums up the state of the national squad as they embark on the tour to England. It will need nothing short of a miracle for this team to repeat the success of the previous Indian sides who worsted the hosts in this country. 

England is the venue where the greatest miracle in the history of Indian cricket took place in 1983.  Similarly, it was during the tour to England in 1996 that two of the most acclaimed cricketers produced by India- Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly- made their entry into the world of test cricket. Let us hope that Shubman Gill and his boys do a repeat of the miracles performed by their predecessors and emerge victorious in this series.