Is Karun Nair playing today's ENG vs IND 2025 3rd Test?

Team India batter Karun Nair retained his place in the side's playing XI for the third Test of the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy against England. The contest kicked off at Lord's, London, on Thursday, July 10.

Following an imperious run in domestic cricket, Karun earned a well-deserved Test call-up for the England tour. He returned to India's red-ball team after being on the sidelines for eight years.

However, he failed to shine in his comeback Test. Batting at No. 6, the 33-year-old registered scores of 0 and 20 in India's five-wicket defeat to England at Headingley, Leeds.

Karun was promoted to the No. 3 spot in the batting order for the second Test. He got off to decent starts in both innings but failed to convert them into big scores. While India clinched a comprehensive 336-run victory, he finished with underwhelming scores of 31 and 26.

The Indian team management has given Karun another opportunity to prove his worth by keeping him in the playing XI at Lord's. The visitors made just one change to their side, with speedster Jasprit Bumrah coming in place of Prasidh Krishna.

Meanwhile, England won the toss and chose to bat first. Here are the two playing XIs:

ENG: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Shoaib Bashir

IND: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

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"Karun Nair is not a number three player in my book" - Sanjay Manjrekar's suggestion to India's team management

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar believes that Karun Nair should not bat at No. 3 for India in the Lord's Test. He opined that Sai Sudharsan should return to the side and take the position in the top order.

Sudharsan made his Test debut in the series opener against England. He bagged a four-ball duck in the first innings and scored 30 runs in the subsequent essay. He was left out of the playing XI for the second fixture.

Suggesting that playing Karun at No. 3 may not be the right move, Majrekar told ESPNcricinfo:

"I would like to see Sai Sudharsan at number three. Karun Nair is not a number three player in my book. It is unfair to drop him after one Test if everyone is getting big hundreds. I think Sai deserves that opportunity as well."

Karun has scored 451 runs across 11 innings at an average of 45.10 in Test cricket. However, apart from his 303*-run knock against England in 2016, he has yet to cross the 50-run mark in the format.