Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) star Subramaniam Badrinath opined on a possible combination headache for India going forward amid the Test series against Sri Lanka. Shubman Gill and his men beat the hosts by 165 runs in the first Test at Galle.
Sai Sudharsan was ruled out of the series due to an injury. His place was taken by Devdutt Padikkal in the playing 11, who grabbed the opportunity with both hands by scoring a magnificent hundred. He made 167 runs in the first innings and also scored 44 runs in the second.
However, when Sudharsan regains complete fitness and returns, it will be interesting to see what happens to Padikkal, who has also performed. On the prospect of dropping Dhruv Jurel to bring Sudharsan back (as Rishabh Pant is the specialist wicketkeeper-batter), Badrinath reckoned that it would be unfair to drop Jurel.
“Why will you drop Dhruv Jurel? When he has been given the chance, he has not done anything wrong. You should not drop him. He has scored runs. Why should you drop him for Sudharsan to come back? When Sudharsan went out due to injury, Padikkal came in for him. Now, if Sai is fit, dropping Jurel or him does not make sense,” he said in a video on his YouTube channel.
Notably, Jurel played an important knock in the first innings. The right-hander scored 51 runs off 68 balls, which eventually pushed the visitors past the 450-mark. They made 462 runs and gained the upper hand in the contest.
Subramaniam Badrinath highlights a harsh reality for Indian cricketers
Subramaniam Badrinath also highlighted that cricket was a harsh sport for players in the current scenario. He expressed that Devdutt Padikkal came in and scored runs, while Sai Sudharsan, who was also in good form, got ruled out.
“Cricket is a very harsh game for a player in India. Sudharsan also did nothing wrong as such, but he got injured. He was in good form. But now Devdutt came and scored runs. I think justice for any player is very difficult. This is the reality in a competitive country like India,” he said.
Sudharsan had scored 81 runs in the one-off Test against Afghanistan at home and also made 332 runs for India A on their tour to Sri Lanka before the main series.
Edited by Rishab Vm