India head coach Gautam Gambhir on Friday cleared the air and stated in as many words that B. Sai Sudharsan will bat at No. 3 when the team takes on Afghanistan in New Chandigarh, starting Saturday.
“Honestly, Sai hasn’t got a fair chance. He’s only played a handful of Test matches, and he started his career in England, which we all know is not the easiest place. He’s had a phenomenal run in IPL (Indian Premier League) as well and we’ve got to give him a fair chance,” Gambhir said on the eve of the one-off Test.
The southpaw averages less than 30 after six Tests, and India has made constant changes at No. 3. Sudharsan struck 87 runs against West Indies in New Delhi and was dropped for the first Test against South Africa in Kolkata a month later before returning one Test later.
As a new season begins, Devdutt Padikkal has emerged as a strong candidate, backed by his 532-run haul in the Ranji Trophy last season. But Gambhir said that, as unfortunate as it may be, Padikkal will have to wait for his chance.
“You can only pick 11, unfortunately. And sometimes you just have to wait for your opportunity. I’ve always believed that the guys who we are going to play, we will give them a fair run. And again, Sudharsan is not in bad form either. He’s got 700 runs in the IPL. And if judging players by only four or five Test matches is good enough, then I feel that we will never be able to build something. So, hopefully he Whenever his time comes, we will give him a fair run as well,” Gambhir said.
Besides Sudharsan, even Rishabh Pant, freshly discharged from his vice-captaincy charge, got a vote of confidence from the head coach.
“The responsibility is only playing for India. Everything else is a by-product. Captaincy, vice-captaincy, all these are by-products. When you start playing for India, you don’t think about vice-captaincy or captaincy at all. You think about doing good for India. So, going from one to the other is just a by-product. And ultimately, everyone is judged on performance. Be it me, be it any support staff, be it any player.
“As far as Rishabh is concerned, we will expect him to be the way he is. It’s not like we will tell him that you have to curb your game. But in international cricket, it’s very important to know what kind of situation the team is in and what it demands and what kind of shot to play. But it’s not like any player is told to play a completely different game from his natural game,” Gambhir said.
Either Manav Suthar or Harsh Dubey will be handed their debut Test cap, and Gambhir revealed the motive behind their selection, and that their inclusion does not amount to the door closing on Ravindra Jadeja in the future.
“The chairman of selectors has already made it very clear that Jadeja is an integral part of this team. It was just that we had the opportunity to try another spinner. If you have to pick four spinners for Sri Lanka, this is the perfect opportunity to try a fourth spinner because we’ve got Washy.[Washington Sundar]Kuldeep [Yadav] and Jadeja, who are our top three spinners. So, if you have that opportunity, we will try that,” Gambhir said.
An integral part of the buildup to the Afghanistan Test has been acclimatising the players to the weather and getting them back into red-ball routine. Eight players in this team played the IPL final less than a week ago.
This challenge of a rapid turnaround will be thrown at India again later in the year. During the tour to New Zealand, the Test series starts just three days after the ODIs end.
Similarly, India will get just two weeks after the white-ball leg in England to prepare for the Test series in Sri Lanka.
“We’ve got 15 days between England and Sri Lanka. So, that’s enough time to prepare. We might have to prepare a little differently for New Zealand. We will have to pull out ODI players who are part of the Test squad because one thing we’ve realized is that we need to start preparing better in red-ball cricket. That was something which was lacking against the West Indies and also against South Africa,” Gambhir said.
Published on Jun 05, 2026
