So far, the ongoing five-match series between England and India has been a nightmare for return player Karun Nair. The ace batter hasn’t scored a single fifty-plus score in six innings, which is highly alarming, given that his performances with the bat might influence the course of the series as the sides prepare for the fourth Test in Manchester, which begins on July 23.

Despite having scores of 0, 20, 31, 26, 40, and 14, Shubman Gill has provided Karun Nair with much-needed support.

The Indian skipper believes Nair has been batting well, but the fact that he has not yet scored large is his main concern. He has also hinted at the possibility of including the 33-year-old in the Manchester match, hoping that the No. 3 batter can turn things around for himself and the batting lineup.

“We think he’s batting well. In his first match, he did not play under his number. He has no batting concerns. Once you reach 50 and are in the zone. “We are hopeful that he can turn things around,” Gill stated during the pre-match press conference on Tuesday.

Akash Deep ruled out

In another unfortunate turn of events, India will be without the services of Akash Deep in addition to Nitish Kumar Reddy and Arshdeep Singh for the fourth match of the five-game series. The pacer has missed out on being fit owing to a groin niggle that has zeroed his chances to feature in the Playing XI in Manchester. Gill, however, is confident of still having a pretty decent bowling unit, which can claim 20 wickets of the opposition.

“Never easy when there’s a bit of injuries going around in the squad. Nitish is gonna miss out the series and Akash [Deep] is also unavailable for this next match, and so is Arshdeep. But I think we have got enough good players in the team to be able to firstly get 20 wickets. That’s been the most challenging part of the series. But I think, looking at the weather, it should be a good game,” the 25-year-old said.

Anshul Kamboj is likely to receive his maiden international cap on Wednesday to feature as India’s third pacer alongside Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. However, the chances surrounding Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur and Kuldeep Yadav cannot be ruled out.