India has a few selection problems to fix, before the 4th IND vs ENG Test in Manchester, that starts on July 23. The foremost is in the batting department — whether to go with Karun Nair, who hasn’t done anything substantial in the series, or with Sai Sudharsan, who wasn’t at his best in Leeds match?
No Place for Karun Nair
Former India cricketer and expert, Sanjay Manjrekar has put his weight behind Sai Sudharsan for the number three spot. The latter had returned with scores of 0 and 30 in his debut match. Post that, Karun Nair was promoted in the batting order, for the next two matches. However, he could hardly make the best use of his opportunities.
“Sai Sudharsan was always my no.3 after the first test match, there was promise shown with 30 runs. And when you have flat pitches and one of England’s weakest bowling attack, you want to play a young player so Karun Nair at no.3 three I didnt agree with maybe the team management might just want to prove a point that we were backing the right horse and give him one more match that’s something happen with team management but I would like to see Sai sudharsan at no3,” Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo.
Sanjay Manjrekar Backs Sai Sudharsan for Manchester Test
Just to put things into perspective, Nair scored 131 runs in the six innings he played, and average only 21.83. His best in those, was only 40. He even failed to bail the team out of trouble, when they were chasing only 193 at Lord’s. Apart from that, India management also needs to address some looming injury concerns.
Nitish Kumar Reddy is out of the series, while Arshdeep Singh is out of the 4th match. Akash Deep too is dealing with back issues, which could leave the Indian pace attack heavily depleted.
