Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar felt dismissing Sai Sudharsan after one Test had taken out his batting confidence, which shown in his early performance in the England-India Test at Manchester. He noted Sudharsan’s reluctance to take deliveries outside the off stump.
The cricketer-turned-commentator added that the teenager focused on survival rather than scoring runs in his second Test match. After being benched after a terrible debut at Headingley, he believes his fear of failure drove such thinking.
“Just focussing on Sai Sudharsan—it’s a story. He’s come back into the playing XI, but his batting shows nerves. He came with the attitude that he’ll leave everything outside off, which is OK, but he left a couple of over-pitched deliveries and others close to the stumps alone, Manjrekar told JioHotstar.
Today, Sudharsan is more apprehensive than his debut: Sanjay Manjrekar
The former India and Mumbai batter thought Sudharsan seemed more anxious in the present match than in the first Test.
I think these are factors you must consider while managing a young player. Their confidence is weak. Dropping one Test match would have hurt his confidence. He’s looking apprehensive again, more so than in his debut Test match, said Manjrekar.
Sudharsan batted in the 31st over after KL Rahul was dismissed. Despite the early indecision, he scored his first half-century and was removed for 61 off 151 in the last session. At the close of Day 1, India had 264 for four wickets after 83 overs when the umpires called Stumps. The Tamil Nadu native leads India in scoring.
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