Young Sai Sudharsan now has the freedom to express himself thanks to head coach Gautam Gambhir’s vote of confidence, which comes with a lot of mental security.
Gambhir made it apparent on the eve of the one-off Test match against Afghanistan that the Tamil Nadu left-hander would receive a long rope because six games are insufficient to assess a player’s skill while assembling a team.
On the first day of the one-off Test, Sudharsan returned the head coach’s trust with an alluring 81.
“I mean, it gives so much freedom. It gives so much certainty mentally that when the coach, the team, and the captain support you, back you, and want you to do well for the country. They want you to do well for the team and win games. It is such an honour at (the) first place,” PTI quoted Sudharsan as saying at the day-end press conference.
“Obviously, it gives a lot of freedom for you to express yourself and do what you can do at your best, rather than thinking about “will I play the next game or not?” or whatever thought of that sort. That never arises because you’ve got great freedom from the team. I think it’s a pleasure.”
Sudharsan and KL Rahul shared 81 runs during their 139-run partnership for the second wicket, but Sudharsan insisted that it wasn’t about being a dominant partner.
“The conversation was more about understanding what was happening, understanding how the wicket was behaving, and who was bowling what. With KL bhai, you know, he gives so much composure. When I bat with him, he gives so much certainty. It helps as a batter, and he sees the game very well, so he gives a lot of useful cues which we would use in the game,” Sudharsan said.
On spin-friendly wickets, the Indian team struggled against South Africa, and the talk of the day was more about how they can control slow bowlers than play time.
“I think the biggest conversation was around how well we can play spin, how well we can understand the conditions, and score runs out of it rather than just looking to play time. Personally, for me, mentally it was more about believing and trusting my abilities and what I can do as a batsman.
“And tactically, we were having a lot of conversations around what we can do to disturb the bowler, what options can we take so that we keep on ticking the scoreboard where the pressure is always there, rather than just soaking up and playing time.”
Even though they are slowish in nature, Sudharsan believed that odd balls that kept low with the wicket would offer more spin starting on the second day.
“I feel it can start spinning regularly in the coming days and it can get a bit slower as well. Slower and lower as well, is what I feel the way it’s behaving now.”
