Sanjay Manjrekar says India was wrong to bench Sai Sudharsan after opening Test against England

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes the team’s management and selectors were wrong after dropping Sai Sudharsan from the second and third Test matches against England. Sudharsan made his Test debut at Leeds, Headingley, and returned with scores of 0 and 30.

However, the left-hander replaced Karun Nair after the latter could not deliver in the first three Test matches against England. Sudharsan looked a bit nervous at the start of his innings on Wednesday but scored a crucial knock of 61 runs off 151 balls.

Manjrekar reckons Sudharsan might have been heartbroken after he was dropped in the second Test.

Manjrekar said on ESPN Cricinfo, “He must have been heartbroken to be dropped after the first Test. I thought India almost played around with a young career because it could have gone completely south.”

“The way he started out, we could see a bit of nervousness. He showed some promise in the second innings of the first Test, so that was India playing with fire with a young man’s career. Fortunately, he showed a big heart, didn’t get a hundred, but most people would be saying, ‘Yes, we expected that from Sai Sudharsan’.”

Meanwhile, Manjrekar highlighted that Sudharsan impressed with his temperament to get big runs in the IPL 2025 for Gujarat Titans. The southpaw top-scored in the tournament with 759 runs in 15 matches and bagged the Orange Cap.

“It was the same if you cast your mind back to Jasprit Bumrah. It’s not that all of us watching him in first-class cricket saw his great numbers and felt this is a guy who will do well in Test cricket. But, just watching him play white-ball cricket, you look at a few things – smarts, the Test match line for a bowler. Similarly, as a batter, we look at his temperament,” said Manjrekar.

“If Sai Sudharsan had got 30s and 40s, batting at the top of the order, in IPL cricket, I don’t think all of us would have been as excited. But, whenever he got in, he played the long innings and got the big runs. He has a very simple and organized technique, so it was going to make his life at the Test level easier because the basic game is tailor-made for the format.”

India ended the opening day’s play at 264-4.