We could've done better nailing down No.3 spot - Ryan ten Doeschate

Ahead of the one-off Test against Afghanistan in Mullanpur from June 6, India's assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate admitted that the team could've done better nailing down the extremely crucial No.3 batting spot in Tests. Following the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, India's first-choice openers have been Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul with Shubman Gill slotting in at #4. One spot above him has been a musical chair of sorts with Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal and even Karun Nair (in England) staking not-so-impressive claims.

In the last Test assignment, India went further left-field by sending in Washington Sundar at that position in the first fixture against South Africa in Kolkata. But in the second Test in Guwahati, Sudharsan returned as Gill sat out due to injury. That was in November 2025. Six months on, India are none the wiser about who the right personnel is, with ten Doeschate revealing that there would be a 'bit of a rope' given to whoever they go with now.

"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.

There, however, are schedule complications to that intention. After their one Test against Afghanistan, India's next red-ball assignment is only in the second half of August - in Sri Lanka, where they are set to play just two Tests. Ten Doeschate reckoned it could be between Padikkal and Sudharsan but also pointed out the issues with looking long-term at the moment. Padikkal has played two of his three Test innings at No. 3 - where he got a 23-ball duck and a 25 (71). For Sudharsan, all of his 11 innings have come in that position, but his returns haven't lived up to the expectations of the management - he has 302 runs at an average of 27.85 and only two half-centuries.

"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.

India also go into this Test just five days after the IPL final, where six of the squad members played - including the captain. [Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar, Prasidh Krishna, Devdutt Padikkal]. Ten Doeschate admitted the need for a quick switch in sleep cycles for the players who were until recently playing late evenings and will now have to be out in the middle in the heat of the first half of the day.

"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 put this switch down to 'detoxing' the players. "Like I said, the players are acutely aware of what's required and the change in conditions. But I guess [going] from a white to red-ball perspective or IPL to Test match cricket, [it] is really [about] detoxing them and that's what these three days have been.

"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.