Former India captain Saurav Ganguly has urged selectors to consider Bengal batter Abhimanyu Easwaran for the national Test side’s No. 3 position, left uncertain after the recent series against England.
India drew the five-match series 2–2 under new Test captain Shubman Gill, but neither Sai Sudharsan nor Karun Nair, tried in the pivotal one-down role, managed to secure it.
Easwaran, 29, has been in and out of Test squads since 2021 without winning a debut. His first-class record, 7,841 runs at 48.70 from 103 matches, remains among the most consistent in domestic cricket, much of it compiled on challenging surfaces at Eden Gardens.
Saurav Ganguly Wants This Player As India’s No. 3 In Tests
Speaking in Kolkata, Ganguly said: “It’s only the No. 3 slot that looked a bit fragile. Maybe Easwaran will be tried out there. He has age on his side.”
The omission has drawn criticism from Easwaran’s father, Ranganathan Easwaran, who told a YouTube interviewer that coaching staff, including Gautam Gambhir, had promised his son a fair run. He also questioned the continued selection of Sudharsan after modest returns in Leeds and Manchester.
Easwaran was named as cover for Rohit Sharma on the Bangladesh tour of 2022 and has since travelled with squads for the Border–Gavaskar Trophy and the England series without making the XI. His case again exposes the bottleneck between sustained domestic success and opportunity at the highest level, a bottleneck Ganguly appears keen to unclog.
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