India captain Shubman Gill extended his support for young batter Sai Sudharsan, saying that the Tamil Nadu player is still trying to figure out his game. Sudharsan has scored 147 runs in seven innings he has played in the longest format with a lone half century. Last week, he could just score 7 against West Indies in Ahmedabad before being snared by Roston Chase.
“You have to give young players more opportunities. They are still trying to figure out their game. And we believe that you have to see someone’s potential first and then see their game in the entirety not just judge someone from one, two, three, four matches,” Gill said ahead of the second WI Test in Delhi, starting on Friday.
“Once you have given someone enough matches, six, seven, eight matches, then you can sit back and think over where he needs to learn or if he needs to play some more domestic matches or play some more India A games. But as of now, we think he’s the man for us and he’s someone that can play for India at No. 3 for a very long time,” he added.
Gill’s words echoed the same thoughts shared by assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate on Wednesday regarding Sudharsan.
“I am sure he does feel like he’s got our backing, like he’s got the captain’s backing and the coaching staff’s backing. And we feel he’ll deliver on his promise very soon,” Ten Doeschate had said.
“I think he’s under no illusion and he can’t hide away from the fact that you do fight for a spot in this environment. You know, you saw Karun Nair get four Test matches in England. There are a lot of good players sort of fighting at the heels of whoever has possession of that spot. So Sai just needs to focus on believing in himself. We’ve obviously got a lot of belief in him to give him that number three spot,” he added.
