In the year, India had already secured the T20 World Cup 2026 championship in February, the Asia Cup 2025, next came the T20I series win of 2-1 in Australia, and lastly, the home series of 3-1 against South Africa. One could think the hosts are all set to win the 10th edition of the T20 World Cup 2026 in February. But as for the No.3 position, the reality is quite different.
The Indian team has the perfect combination of openers, a solid middle-order, an extraordinary finisher in Hardik Pandya, and the duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarty controlling the spin department, while Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh take care of the pace attack. Still, the No.3 position is shaky, slipping in the order, and not providing any support.
No.3 Batters for India After Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, the two stalwarts, left T20I after winning the World Cup in 2024. Ruturaj Gaikwad was given the No.3 spot for the first two matches of the Zimbabwe series (where he scored 7 and 77*), while Abhishek Sharma, the latter, was given the debut India call-up. The latter also batted No.3 for three games, scoring 24 runs. Apart from a match against Sri Lanka, where Sanju Samson did not score, either Suryakumar Yadav or Tilak Varma was in charge of the No.3 role.
The SKY-Varma switch went on till the Asia Cup 2025 when Samson was again given the first chance. He scored 56 off 45 balls against Oman. But two games later, Shivam Dube came out to deal with the spin of Bangladesh. India’s move failed as Dube fell for two, getting out to Rishad Hossain.
Musical chairs were played in Australia between SKY, Samson, and Dube, and then some. Chasing a target of over 200, left-handed all-rounder Axar Patel had to join another southpaw, Abhishek, after Shubman Gill was dismissed at 9/1 in the very first over. The left-handed all-rounder made 21 runs off as many balls in a losing cause.
The decision to send Axar was, however, a mix of strange and ridiculous.
Tilted to the side of Tilak Varma, India’s Best Bet for T20 World Cup 2026
The majority of India’s victories in T20Is this year have been because of remarkable batting by Abhishek Sharma or the all-rounders in the middle and lower-middle orders. Suryakumar Yadav has been out of form, a fact that the captain himself acknowledges. This, however, does not justify the confusion over a dedicated spot that should exclusively belong to Tilak Varma while Surya can occupy his best place at two down.
Let’s back the above assertion with numbers.
Overall, at the No.3 position, between the last World Cup and now, Surya has accumulated 377 runs in 17 matches, with a strike rate of 157.74. He has scored two half-centuries during this time, but his last highest score of 75 was against Bangladesh in October 2024. Regarding his No.3 positions throughout his career, the 35-year-old has a century along with six fifties at a strike rate of 159. But at the two down spot, Surya has tallied three hundreds, 13 half-centuries and his strike rate is raised to 166.
Turning to Varma at No.3 for the past two years or so, he has scored 422 runs in just seven outings. He has made two hundreds, two half-centuries and has a strike rate of 168.80 – the highest among batters at No.3 since the retirement of the two legends. If this does not convince you, Varma has, overall, 542 runs from 15 outings at No.3, with a striking rate of 161.. It falls down to 129 at the fourth position.
This is pretty solid proof that switching Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma for the No.3 is a futile exercise. Rather, the run-making machine should take the spot, and the captain should move to his comfort zone and slowly get back his form. This is the approach that should prevail in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand, starting from January 21 in Nagpur. The choices made in this series will play a pivotal role in easily traversing the T20 World Cup 2026, which is set to start on February 7. India will kick off their campaign against the USA at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
