The Indian team management, led by new head coach Gautam Gambhir, is facing criticism after dropping young batter Sai Sudharsan for the second Test against England at Edgbaston. Sai Sudharsan, who made his debut in the first Test of the series, was left out after just one game, a move that hasn’t gone down well with many fans.
Captain Shubman Gill announced three changes at the toss. Jasprit Bumrah was rested, while Shardul Thakur and Sai Sudharsan were dropped. In their place, Akash Deep, Washington Sundar, and Nitish Kumar Reddy were brought in. While Bumrah’s omission was explained as part of workload management, the decision to leave out Sai Sudharsan came as a surprise.
Sai Sudharsan has also been in sensational form in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, racking up 456 runs thus far from nine matches with five half-centuries and a top score of 82. Young India batter Sai Sudharsan, who earned his maiden call-up to India’s red-ball squad for the upcoming five-match Test series against England, has revealed that fellow Chennai cricketer Washington Sundar has been an inspiration to him since his youth.
Sai Sudharsan, a composed left-hander who may be handed his debut in the series beginning on Friday, 20 June, spoke of his admiration for Sundar in a heartfelt conversation shared by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Although only slightly younger than the versatile all-rounder, Sai Sudharsan said Washington has long been a source of inspiration.
Sai Sudharsan’s career -A glimpse
After the loss in the finals of the recently ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 ,in the built up to the future the Indian selectors decided to rest likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the consequent ODI tour to South Africa .
Under the captainship of KL Rahul one youngster who grabbed the eyeballs of the selectors was the prolific performer Sai Sudarshan. Sai Sudharsan in the absence of New Zealand’s star batter Kane Williamson played a vital role in the recently concluded IPL season 2023.
An elegant lefthander and Engineer Sai Sudharsan has been a prolific and consistent performer since his starting days at Tamil Nadu, only to increase his consistency batting at No 3 at the highest level. Through the consistent performances at domestic levels and TNPL, Sai Sudarsan was selected By Gujarat Titans in the IPL.
In the absence of injured Kane Williamson ,Sai Sudharsan came in as the impact player for Gujarat and then through the entire IPL season was effective at No 3 with te the bat at crucial junctures for his team .His career defining knock though came against Chennai Super Kings in the Final where he scored 96 runs in 47 balls .
Though Gujarat lost the final, this performance earned Sai Sudharsan a call to India A side where again at No 3 he scored 103 runs against Pakistan A to give India A a victory, thus continuing his form in the upcoming domestic season Sudharsan rightly grabbed the eyeballs of many players especially his own state teammate and the Indian offs pinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
An prolific left hander through his performances with he bat, Sai Sudharsan aims to play and represent India in the whites in the future and has opened his views on the same. Former Indian coach Ravi Shastri also insisted that Sai Sudharsan should be the perfect No 3 spot player for India in the English series.
Following a debut where Sai Sudharsan faltered in the first innings on duck , he made amends to forge a partnership with centurion KL Rahul scoring a resolved 30 runs. However after the loss in 1st Test vs England, the team management and Gautam Gambhir went on a change spree and bought in plethora of all rounders as a result of which till now Sai Sudharsan’s test career only has one game to his name.
This selection process from Gautam Gambhir and the team management received repurcussions and heavy trolling as many cricket experts were shocked by the omission of Sai Sudharsan from the Playing XI at Edgbaston. Former Indian cricketer Subramaniam Badrinath expressed his opinion on the same and insisted that Sai Sudharsan should have been given a longer run.
Subramaniam Badrinath slams the management and coach on the omission of Sai Sudharsan
Former cricketer Subramaniam Badrinath seemed unimpressed by India’s decision to drop top-order batter Sai Sudharsan for the ongoing second Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy against England. The match kicked off at Edgbaston, Birmingham, on Wednesday, July 2.
Sai Sudharsan made his Test debut in the opening encounter of the series. Batting at No. 3, he registered scores of 0 and 30. The visitors suffered a five-wicket defeat in the contest, with England chasing down the 371-run target in the fourth innings.
Badrinath opined that benching Sudharsan, who is in the middle of a purple patch, was the wrong move. The youngster was the Orange Cap winner of the 2025 Indian Premier League, chalking up 759 runs across 15 innings.
The cricketer-turned-commentator wrote on X:
“Sai scored a crucial 30 and was involved in an important partnership in the second innings. dropping an youngster high on confidence doesn’t feel right.”
While Sudharsan bagged a four-ball duck in India’s first innings, he got off to a decent start in the subsequent essay. He stitched together a crucial 66-run partnership for the second wicket with KL Rahul. Shubman Gill and Co. made three changes to their playing XI for the second Test. Sudharsan, Jasprit Bumrah (rested) and Shardul Thakur made way for Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akash Deep and Washington Sundar.
Ben Stokes won the toss for England and chose to field first at Edgbaston. With Sai Sudharsan not part of the side, the Indian think tank Karun Nair was promoted to the No. 3 spot in the first innings. Karun returned to the Test team after a gap of eight years. However, he failed to make a significant impact in his comeback match, recording scores of 0 and 20.
He batted at No. 6 in the opening encounter. He looked in impressive form in the second Test, scoring 31 runs off 50 deliveries. The right-handed batter failed to convert the start into a big score, getting out off speedster Brydon Carse’s bowling at the stroke of Lunch.
Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair both made ducks in the first innings of the first Test. However, Sai Sudharsan hit a crisp 30 in the second, while Karun Nair made 20. However, Karun has been persisted with and will take Sai Sudharsan’s spot at No. 3 for the second Test. This made it clearly evident that in GG era, the team selection decision would not be on merit but on the person whom coach Gautam Gambhir seems is fit in the Playing XI.
Sai Sudharsan may have to see another day for his 2nd Test match but its simply not fair on the talented and prolific young cricketer to be ousted only after one test match. This could deter his confidence too and the managemnt needs to address the same in forthcoming matches .
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