The left-handed batter from Tamil Nadu fell for 87 runs in the first innings.
At least for a few weeks ahead, India’s quest to aggressively look for a No.3 in the longest format of the game would be put to rest. Sai Sudharsan played a composed knock of 87 in the first innings of the second Test in Delhi. Though he would have loved to make it big and register his maiden three-figure score in Tests, the youngster expressed that he was content with the score beside his name.
This knock will give the youngster from Tamil Nadu a lot of confidence. Having made his debut on English soil in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, Sudharsan did not have the best of outings. To add to that, he had scored just 147 runs in seven innings before the start of the ongoing Test. As a result, his position in the side was under scrutiny.
With the likes of Devdutt Padikkal waiting for his chance, pressure would be through the roof for the Gujarat Titans (GT) opener. Despite dealing with the mental fights, Sudharsan carried himself with poise to register his second fifty in Test cricket.
Having said that, India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak has identified a potential technical flaw in the batting of the youngster from Tamil Nadu. Though the 23-year-old is a superb player of spin bowling, he tends to play some of the fuller balls on the backfoot. According to Kotak, this is what led to his dismissal in the first innings of the second Test in Delhi.
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For a batter who has rose up the ranks from Tamil Nadu, facing spinners would be the least of his problems. The wickets in Tamil Nadu assist the spinners after the first session of the match, which is pretty evident in the Tests played in Chennai. Over a period of 35 matches, Sudharsan has notched up 2,392 runs in First-class cricket, with eight hundreds and as many fifties.
The 23-year-old had met with a different problem in England, when Ben Stokes exploited his leg-side game in his debut match. The English skipper dismissed Sudharsan in both the innings of the Test. To add to that, Sai Sudharsan was caught in the leg-side on both occasions. Hence, there were speculations about his head falling over after his initial days at the highest level.
However, he overcame that quite easily and quickly. But the youngster could not quite get going despite making good starts on English soil. Somehow, Sudharsan used to manage to throw his wicket away. This is why the innings against the West Indies was special. He was dropped at mid-wicket when he was batting on 58, and managed to add another 29 runs to his tally later.
In the above image, we can clearly see an example of Sudharsan playing a delivery on the backfoot and front foot respectively. On both sides of the image, we can see that the youngster is in complete control of his balance and position. To add to that, he is playing the ball to its merit. For the one where he plays on the backfoot, he is positioned well inside the crease to get into a good position. Similarly, the one on the right depicts a perfect position for a delivery on the front foot.
However, the problem starts to take effect when Sudharsan is unable to judge the trajectory and length of the delivery. And that is exactly how Jomel Warrican got him dismissed in the first innings. Sudharsan went behind to a delivery which should have been played on the front foot, and that led to his dismissal 13 runs short of a century.
In the above image, it can clearly be seen that Sudharsan is out of position for a ball that was pitched relatively fuller. To add to that, his front foot is completely on the ground, which is indicative of the fact that he has no intentions to move his feet – unlike the previous occasion where his front foot is on its way to transfer the body weight behind.
All said and done, batting coach Kotak was impressed with Sudharsan”s ability to exhibit mental toughness despite the pressure. Kotak also stated that the determination which he showed to play a big innings will stand out in his favour.
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