Team India assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate acknowledged that Sai Sudharsan or Devdutt Padikkal should be given a long rope at the crucial batting position because too many players have batted at number three in Test matches since Cheteshwar Pujara’s departure.
Although Pujara last represented India in the WTC final in 2023, he declared his retirement in 2025. Since then, Washington Sundar, Karun Nair, Padikkal, Sudharsan, and Shubman Gill have all been tested for that role.
After playing six Test matches, Sudharsan’s average of more than 27 is not particularly noteworthy.
“There’s 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,” PTI quoted Ten Doeschate as saying at a press conference on Thursday.
Ten Doeschate didn’t want to reveal who would make it, even though Padikkal and Sudharsan had both been receiving lengthy rope at nets.
Padikkal was spotted that day standing with captain Shubman Gill and KL Rahul during slip formation. Sudharsan entered after Rahul had gone to the nets. Sudharsan lost control of his bat at nets once more, causing it to slip and fly backwards, just as it did twice in the IPL.
“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,” Ten Doeschate said citing a practical problem, but he insisted that one must make a decision fast and move forward with the chosen individual.
“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.”
Pacer Mohammed Siraj appeared to be in perfect rhythm at the nets despite reports regarding his workload management.
“Siraj bowled yesterday, he looked absolutely fine.”
Manav Suthar appears to be a much more deft bowler than Harsh Dubey based only on net performance, but the Vidarbha slow left arm orthodox’s superior batting abilities may earn him his first Test cap.
With a first-class ton under his belt, Suthar is no mug with the bat. Ten Doeschate stated that only one of Suthar and Dubey will play with Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar.
“The chance of both of them playing in the Test are probably pretty small. We haven’t finalised the combination but I imagine, Kuldeep will play and Washington will play, and then one of those two will play,” Ten Doeschate said.
The WTC games are taken into consideration while looking at combinations.
“I would imagine we play two seamers and a spinning all-rounder, and two spinners (spin-all-rounders) if you consider that the two guys we brought in can bat a little bit as well.”
“It’s going to be nine crucial Test matches in the in the WTC cycle, and sort of our last chance of making that final which is top of priority at the moment.”
