Is Karun Nair playing today’s ENG vs IND 2025 1st Test?

Team India batter Karun Nair makes a return to the line-up after eight years as he has been named to play the first Test against England at Headingley, Leeds on Friday, June 20. He last played in an international contest during the 2017 Border-Gavaskar series in the subcontinent, and had to wait for a long time on the sidelines for a return.

Karun Nair had a dominating 2024-25 domestic campaign for Vidarbha, which brought him into the spotlight once again. He narrowly missed out on the squad for the 2025 Champions Trophy squad, but managed to earn a place in the touring party for the England Tests in the aftermath of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's recent Test retirements.

He is set to bat at No.6 as Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant claim the No.4 and No.5 respectively, while debutant Sai Sudharsan is more compatible at the top of the order.

Team India skipper Shubman Gill confirmed Karun Nair's presence in the team combination during the toss.

"Would've bowled first as well, might be a bit tough in the first session but it should be good to bat on later. Sun is out, should be a good batting deck for us. Preperation has been amazing, we played a practice game in Beckenham, lads are feeling great. Sai makes his debut, Karun comes in. Sai will bat at three," Gill said at the toss after being put into bat first (via Cricbuzz).

Team India playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Bhardwaj Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Prasidh Krishna, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Karun Nair had prolific outings in England in the lead-up to the first Test

The batter was one of the first among the squad to reach on English shores after the Delhi Capitals (DC) failed to make it to the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs. He made a statement straightaway, scoring a double hundred in the first unofficial Test against the England Lions.

He also chipped in with 55 runs across two innings in the next match to be firmly in contention for a middle-order spot in the playing XI, with competition from the likes of Dhruv Jurel.