Former India chairman of selectors Krishnamachari Srikkanth said that Tamil Nadu batter Sai Sudharsan should not be a sure-shot pick at number three in the Test side over the course of the next few series after squandering his opportunities during the West Indies series that concluded in Delhi on Tuesday.
While the hosts wrapped up a comfortable 2-0 series victory, the 24-year-old Sudharsan had a mixed series with scores of 3, 87 and 39 in the three outings.
Entering the Delhi Test with only one half-century across seven innings, Sudharsan had compiled a fine score during a largely spotless innings. However, he failed to convert the knock into a century. Former India skipper Srikkanth said that the lack of a century could hamper his assurance in the spot for now.
“I still feel we should wait for some time. He played well, especially off the backfoot, but I wouldn’t say he should be a certainty over the next two to three series so easily. But he should not have let go of such an easy century. There is a big difference between 87, why even 99, to 100,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.
“Once you score that hundred, it’s a different level. 90s, 50s and 70s are of no use compared to a 100. Irrespective of how much you fail, everyone will only ask for the number of hundreds. That’s where Sai Sudharsan missed out.”
Srikkanth also lauded India Test opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, marking the Mumbaikar as an all-format player. Despite raising his Test record to world-leading standards, Jaiswal has only played one ODI to date and was overlooked for India’s Asia Cup T20I assignment last month. Averaging over 36, Jaiswal also possesses a tremendous 164-plus strike rate in the shortest format.
“100% he (Jaiswal) is an all-three-format player, no two ways about it. T20 his record is brilliant, in ODIs he will do very well but he has not been given ample chances. His game is natural and he plays his natural game without modifying. He is even charging medium pacers and smashing them at times,” said Srikkanth
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The 23-year-old, however, will be in contention to revive his ODI career as he will board the flight to Australia for the three-match series, starting Sunday.
