Sai Sudharsan got the chance to play in his place
Indian batting coach Sitanshu Kotak felt that dropping Karun Nair for the fourth Test in Manchester doesn’t mean that the veteran batter’s chances are over with the national team.
However, he refrained from speaking about the reason which was behind axing the 33-year-old from the playing XI, saying it is a question for captain Shubman Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir to answer.
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Nair, who has made his return to the national team after eight long years in the domestic circuit, began the series with a duck at Headingley, but managed to score 131 runs from six innings. After testing out by playing both Sai Sudharsan and Nair in that match, which didn’t yield desired results, India promoted Nair to No.3 in the batting order and benched Sudharsan.
Nair throwing away his wicket in the second innings against Brydon Carse had contributed heavily to India’s top-order collapse in the third Test at Lord’s as they fell 22 runs short of a target of 193.
With the series on the line and injury to all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, India picked Shardul Thakur in his place and replaced Nair with Sudharsan at No.3. Even though Sudharsan looked under-confident in his second outing in Tests, he managed to grind out 61 runs in the first innings at Old Trafford.
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However, in the second innings, he was out for a golden duck in Chris Woakes’ first over, leaving India in a precarious position of 0/2.
When asked about Nair’s exclusion in the press conference, Kotak replied:
“Selection matters coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Shubman Gill can talk about. I will not be right talking about it. When Gill said we will back Karun he would have meant back him as a batter. He didn’t do badly, got starts.”
Gill, who was batting at No.3 previously, moved to No.4 following Virat Kohli’s retirement as India look to find a batter for the crucial position.
Before the start of the series Gambhir had said that Nair will be given a good amount of chances as he had earned his place in the Indian team after years of piling runs in the domestic circuit.
Much like Nair at Lord’s, his replacement Sudharsan had also lost his wicket at a crucial juncture of the match. If not for skipper Gill (78 not out) and KL Rahul’s (87 not out) unbeaten partnership of 174, India would’ve been staring at a massive innings defeat.
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