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On the eve of the one-off Afghanistan Test, India head coach Gautam Gambhir confirmed his choice for no.3 role. Gambhir backed Sai Sudharsan over Devdutt Padikkal to continue batting at no.3 and said that he hasn't got a fair change. He intends to give him a longer rope and highlighted that he has been in form in the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) for Gujarat Titans (GT).
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“Honestly, Sai hasn’t got a fair chance. He’s only played, what, a handful of Test matches. And he started his Test career in England, which we all know is not the easiest place. And he’s had a phenomenal run in the IPL as well, and we’ve got to give him a fair chance. I still believe that he hasn’t got a fair chance,” Gambhir said in the press conference.
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“You can only pick 11, unfortunately, and sometimes you just have to wait for your opportunity,” the Indian head coach said. “I’ve always believed that guys who we are going to play, we’ll give them a fair run. If judging players by only four or five Test matches is good enough, then I feel that we will never be able to build something,” he added.
Assistant coach on same page as Gambhir
Since the departure of Cheteshwar Pujara, India have tried a few batters at no.3 but it hasn't worked in their favour. Earlier, on June 4, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate had also emphasised on the need to back a player at no.3, giving him a longer run.
"There's been a lot of changes in that spot and that's not ideal, you know. You need to look at the incumbents for that role and and maybe stick with someone," Doeschate had said.
No.3 ‘a difficult position to bat’
The former Netherlands all-rounder also said that it is a difficult position to bat. He pointed out that both Padikkal and Sudharsan have played well in domestic cricket.
"It's a difficult position to bat in and a very important position to bat. Dev comes in with a ton of runs in domestic cricket across all the formats and obviously Sai's been high on runs in IPL with Gujarat, so they're both in good form.
"Whoever plays they'll be given a bit of a run. That's quite difficult with one Test match now, and then we don't play a Test match for another two months, and then we play two Test matches, and then you don't play for a while. So, you know, we need to factor that in," Ten Doeschate said.
Sudharsan's Test form last year
Sudharsan played one Test in the South Africa Test series at home and registered scores of 15 and 14 in Guwahati. He recorded two ducks in England and just one fifty. After a single-digit score against West Indies, he scored 87 to retain his spot.
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