The 23-year-old Tamil Nadu batsman Sai Sudharsan has received backing from the former India National Cricket Team spinner Pragyan Ojha after mixed outings in his debut in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025.
Pragyan Ojha has sent a message to the Gautam Gambhir-led coaching staff to show more faith in the youngster as he has a “bit of a spark and a bit of temperament” to perform well in Test cricket.
Sai Sudharsan scores 140 runs in debut Test series
On the back of good performances in first-class cricket and an unbelievable run with the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Sai Sudharsan received his Test call-up.
Your daily dose of cricket!
He made his India Test debut in the series opener of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 at Headingley in Leeds. The left-handed batter failed miserably on his debut at No.3 and returned with scores of 0 and 30.
Sai Sudharsan was dropped for the next two matches at Edgbaston in Birmingham and Lord’s in London, before being brought back for the last two games.
Sudharsan hit a classy 60 on his comeback game, but fell for 0 in the next innings at Old Trafford in Manchester. Then, he scored 38 and 11 in the last Test match at the Kennington Oval in London.
Overall, he scored 140 runs in six innings for the India National Cricket Team at an average of 23.33 and a best score of 61, which many felt was not a good enough performance.
He’s young, he needs to work on converting his start into something bigger – Sai Sudharsan
There have been calls for Sai Sudharsan to be dropped, but Pragyan Ojha feels it wouldn’t be the right thing to do. The former Indian spinner said that Sai Sudharsan is mentally strong and skillful and needs to be given support by the team management.
However, Pragyan Ojha bluntly ordered the Tamil Nadu batter to work on converting his starts into big scores and improve his fielding. Speaking on JioHotstar, he said:
“Who’s the batter that you would want at number three? The one who is mentally strong and is skilful. He showed us both those traits, and he could play that way, he could spend a lot of time at the crease, and he could take the shine off the ball. But he couldn’t score the runs and needs to work on that aspect. He’s young, he needs to work on converting his start into something bigger and also focus a bit more on his catching.”
“But I feel he is one player on whom you need to show some confidence, he has shown a bit of a spark, a bit of temperament, and you would want give some cushion to a number three player because in SENA countries, just like how the openers find life difficult, the number three batter also finds life tough”.
He could have contributed more – Pragyan Ojha on Yashasvi Jaiswal
Star opening batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal didn’t have the best of the series in England as he scored 411 runs in 5 matches at an average of 41.10, with two tons and two fifties. Although these numbers look good, they are below par when compared to the standards set by the explosive opener.
Pragyan Ojha felt that Yashasvi Jaiswal could have made better contributions and would be disappointed with his performance on the England tour.
“He would be relieved (with the hundred in the last Test) because he began the tour with a hundred and ended the series with a hundred. But in the matches in between, he could have contributed more. When we talk about Jaiswal, when England came to India, how he batted in that series. The way he batted in Australia.
“I feel that keeping that in mind, he might be disappointed with his performances because everyone who has followed his career and rates his game, I feel he could have scored another hundred in the series, which he missed out on,” Ojha said.
Also Read: Abhimanyu Easwaran’s private chat with Gautam Gambhir leaked: ‘I will not push you…’
