India’s assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate conceded that too many players have batted at number three in Test matches after Cheteshwar Pujara’s retirement and it was time that either Sai Sudharsan or Devdutt Padikkal is given a long rope at the key batting position.
Pujara announced his retirement in 2025, but last played in white flannels for India in the WTC final in 2023. Since then, Shubman Gill, Padikkal, Sudharsan, Karun Nair and Washington Sundar have all been tried in that position. Sudharsan has played six Tests and has managed a not-so-impressive average of 27 plus.
“There have been a lot of changes in that spot and that’s not ideal, you know. You need to look at the incumbents for that role and maybe stick with someone,” Doeschate said at a press conference on Thursday.
While both Sudharsan and Padikkal have been getting long rope at nets, Doeschate did not want to spill the beans about the one who would make it. On the day, during slip formation, Padikkal was seen standing alongside KL Rahul and skipper Shubman Gill. After Rahul went to the nets, Sudharsan came in. During nets, Sudharsan once again lost the grip on his bat, which slipped and flew backwards like it happened in IPL twice.
“It’s a difficult position to bat in and a very important position to bat. Dev comes in with a ton of runs in domestic cricket across all the formats and obviously Sai’s been high on runs in IPL with Gujarat, so they're both in good form. Whoever plays they'll be given a bit of a run. That's quite difficult with one Test match now, and then we don't play a Test match for another two months, and then we play two Test matches, and then you don't play for a while. So, you know, we need to factor that in,” Doeschate said, citing a practical problem.
However, he maintained that one needs to quickly decide and continue with the person of choice. “The main point around there is we want to make a decision and then trust that person to grow into the role, and ideally quickly. Where we find ourselves in the WTC table? It's probably something we could have done better leading up to this is maybe backing someone in a different spot,” he added.
While there were reports about Mohammed Siraj’s workload management, the Hyderabad fast bowler looked in fine rhythm at the nets.
Also read: Mullanpur Test: Siraj, Prasidh bowl at full tilt
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