India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has offered his perspective on Karun Nair’s disappointing form with the bat during the ongoing five-match Test series against England.
Making his return to international cricket after a prolonged absence, Karun was backed by the team management in the first three Tests but has yet to notch a half-century. With promising talents like Sai Sudharsan and Dhruv Jurel waiting in the wings, pressure is mounting on both the player and the team selectors as calls grow louder for a change at the top.
Despite his modest scores, ten Doeschate remains optimistic about Karun’s approach, noting that while the batter’s rhythm and tempo are encouraging, the team is in need of more runs from its top three.
“Even someone like Karun, we feel his rhythm is good, his tempo is good. We want more runs from the top three. But the message is primarily to focus on what we’ve done well and tidy up the small things that have cost us games,” ten Doeschate said during a press conference.
The Dutchman refrained from heavily criticising the returning batter but did point to a recurring issue within the team — the tendency to collapse in clusters, which has cost India dearly in the series so far.
“That may seem counterintuitive when you’re 2-1 down in the series, but we believe the players have been excellent for large periods. However, the pattern of losing multiple wickets in a short span has been the standout factor in both defeats. At Headingley and again overnight and the following morning at Lord’s, we lost six wickets for 40 — and that’s where we believe the games were lost,” he added.
Karun, who earned his comeback on the back of a stellar domestic season, has managed only 131 runs in three Tests at an average of 21.83, with a top score of 40. Having batted at number three in the last two matches after Sudharsan’s exclusion, Karun posted scores of 31, 26 and 40 but has failed to convert starts into substantial scores.
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