After an exceptional show of grit and determination, India ultimately failed to win the third Test by only 22 runs.
Former wicketkeeper-batter Deep Dasgupta has urged the Indian management to look ahead to the future. He felt that the team should move on from Karun Nair and start backing the promising youngster Sai Sudharsan. Notably, both these players featured in the ENG vs IND series opener in Leeds. However, they dropped the southpaw after his debut match to continue with Nair.
“You have to look at the future. Karun is nearing 34 and Sai is 21 [23],” opined the former player.
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After a heart-wrenching defeat in the third fixture at Lord’s, the former gloveman suggested bringing back Sudharsan in India’s batting lineup for the fourth Test. He believes that the team should place faith in the youngster and give him the opportunity to shine in the red-ball format.
Though the batter was dismissed for a duck in his debut innings at Headingley, he bounced back stronger to score a fighting 30-run knock, which was the third-best aggregate of the second innings, after KL Rahul’s 137 and Rishabh Pant’s 118.
“If you have already decided that you would invest in Sai then allow him to gain experience of playing Tests in England. He is a work in progress and will only get better,” he added.
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The 33-year-old has had an average outing in the series so far. He had to endure a long wait of nearly a decade to don the national whites again after making his Test debut in 2016. Nair notched up a mammoth triple-century against England at home during his debut red-ball series. However, he was never picked again by the selectors in the format.
After smashing so many runs in the domestic arena through all these seasons, he finally earned a call-up to be part of the national team. However, the batter has scored 131 runs in six innings so far at an average of 21.83. Except for the first-innings duck in Leeds, he has managed to get crucial starts in all of the fixtures so far. But Nair failed to make it count when it mattered the most. This may propel the management to shift the focus on Sudharsan to replace him at the No.3 spot in the next fixture of the series.
Currently, India are trailing 2-1 in the five-match series after the tragic 22-run defeat in the third Test. The fourth match between these two sides will commence on July 23, at Manchester.
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