While the Indian team management will be pondering over the changes to be made in the bowling attack with pacer Arshdeep Singh ruled out of the fourth Test and all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy being ruled out of the series ahead of the Manchester Test, coach Gautam Gambhir will also be pondering over the number three batsman in the team.
With Karun Nair, who had made a return to Test cricket after eight years in the first Test at Leeds, failing to score big with his highest score being 40 in the first innings in the Lord’s Test, there has been talks about Sai Sudharsan coming at number three for the fourth Test at Manchester. While Nair played in the first Test at number five, the 33-year-old played at No. 3 for the Edgbaston and Lord’s Test after Sudharsan had failed to impress in the opening Test.
Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has talked about him not agreeing about Nair being India’s number three and shared about how he sees Sai Sudharshan as the number three batsman for India in the remaining two Tests.
“Sai Sudharsan was always my number 3 after the first Test match, there was promise shown with 30 runs. And when you have flat pitches and one of England’s weakest bowling attacks, you want to play a young player so Karun Nair at number 3 three I didn’t agree with, maybe the team management might just want to prove a point that we were backing the right horse and give him one more match that’s something happening with team management but I would like to see Sai sudharsan at number 3,” Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo.
The Karnataka batsman, who had first burst on the International scene with a triple hundred against England in his maiden Test series in 2016, had a disappointing run in the opening Test at Leeds as he failed to score in the first innings followed by a knock of 20 runs in the second innings. In the last two Tests, Nair has scored a total of 111 runs and has failed to convert any of his knocks into a half-century or century.
The 23-year-old Sudharsan, who has scored 1947 runs in 29 First Class matches with an average of just under 40, including seven hundreds and five fifties, had got out for a duck in the first innings of the Leeds test before he looked solid during his knock of 30 runs in the second innings. Former Indian wicket-keeper had also backed the youngster over Nair for the number three spot last week. “In the Playing XI, you don’t want more than one change. If there is only one, it would be replacing Karun Nair with Sai Sudharsan. Because Karun Nair hasn’t made any runs. He’s got starts, but hasn’t converted them into big scores. I also believe he doesn’t look that comfortable at the crease either. And secondly, Sai Sudharsan is a young player. If you want to invest in this England series, you’d rather invest in a younger player. Karun Nair has got starts in both Test matches, but he hasn’t looked that convincing. So if you’re looking to build ahead, you might as well invest in someone like Sai Sudharsan. Because after this, I don’t know when you’ll come back to a series in England. So when you have two Tests left, invest in Sai Sudharsan,” Dasgupta had told JioHotstar.
Earlier, Indian team’s assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate had also talked about the need for more runs from Nair, the number three.
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“Probably both times in Headingley and obviously overnight and first thing in the morning at Lord’s, we feel cost us the game was losing six wickets for 40 again. But if you look at it individually, if you look at the run tally of all the batters they’re all batting nicely. Even someone like Karun, we feel his rhythm is good, his tempo is good. We want more runs from him at (number)three. But the message is mainly, let’s really focus on what we’ve done well and tidy up the little things that have cost us results, essentially,” Ten Doeschate had said earlier.