Aakash Chopra has slammed the Indian team management’s decision not to give Sai Sudharsan the long rope and drop him for the Kolkata Test against South Africa. India made a strange call to play four spinners in the match, meaning that Sudharsan missed out and Axar Patel came in. Sudharsan was used as a No.3 for the first time during the England tour, but he was dropped after the first Test.
Once the Karun Nair experiment at No.3 failed, India went back to the Tamil Nadu batter, and he played at the spot in the West Indies series. During the match in Delhi, Sudharsan scored 87, which saw him silence critics and show signs as to why he should have been used at the position long-term.
But the decision to drop Sudharsan didn’t go down well with Chopra, who asked why he was in the squad in the first place if he wasn’t going to get a place for the Kolkata Test.
“If you’re not convinced with Sai Sudharsan’s batting after what he did in Delhi, then why is he still in the squad? Why keep him in the team? It can’t be that just because you need fifteen players, you include him even though you have no belief in him. That’s not how it works. So their thinking I don’t understand it,” said Chopra.
NO.3 MUSICAL CHAIRS
Since Rahul Dravid and Cheteshwar Pujara’s prolific runs at No.3, India has struggled to find a right fit for the position. While current captain Shubman Gill found success, he decided to take the No.4 spot following Virat Kohli’s retirement.
Chopra feels that this trend of musical chairs with the spot can’t continue, and the team management needs to start grooming players for the future.
“Let me play devil’s advocate — there were three spinners, two fast bowlers, and West Indies didn’t get bowled out by us the second time. And it was a flat pitch; maybe they felt they wouldn’t bowl them out, so they wanted one more bowler. I don’t think the decision had anything to do with batting. If Washington plays, or if Axar plays, they will score so many runs that you won’t miss Sai Sudharsan’s batting contribution. That happens.”
“When the team is winning, that becomes one part of cricket — but the second part is preparing players and taking them forward. And Sai Sudharsan yes, he scored runs and still got dropped. It’s true — if you’re not in the playing XI, that doesn’t mean you suddenly become a useless player. India has a chance here to prepare their players. The No. 3 spot cannot become a game of musical chairs. Rahul Dravid, Cheteshwar Pujara — if you don’t identify the right guy now, then what? There was Karun Nair, maybe next time you’ll see Abhimanyu Easwaran — and then Sai doesn’t get prepared at all,” said Chopra.
So far, Sudharsan has scored 273 runs from five matches at No.3 with an average of 30.33 and scored two fifties.
