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NEW DELHI: India caput manager Gautam Gambhir connected Friday confirmed that left-handed batter Sai Sudharsan volition bat astatine fig 3 successful the one-off Test against Afghanistan, which begins connected Saturday successful New Chandigarh."Sai Sudharsan hasn’t got a just chance. He played successful England. We volition springiness him a longer rope," Gambhir said during the pre-match property conference.
"We tin (only) prime 11 (players) and Sai isn't successful atrocious form. He scored 700 runs successful IPL. If we justice Sai connected ground of 4-5 games we volition ne'er beryllium capable to physique something," helium added.The fig 3 presumption has remained unsettled for India successful Test cricket since Cheteshwar Pujara moved retired of the side. Since then, 7 antithetic batters person been tried astatine one-drop, but nary person managed to marque the spot their own.
Several of them were besides not fixed an extended tally successful the role. Pujara announced his status successful 2025, though his past Test quality for India came successful the 2023 World Test Championship final.Shubman Gill had the longest stint astatine fig 3 earlier moving to fig 4 aft becoming Test skipper pursuing Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma's status from the format.Since Gill’s move, Sudharsan, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel and Devdutt Padikkal person each batted astatine fig three.
India’s 2-0 location bid decision to South Africa highlighted the uncertainty astir the position. Sundar was promoted to fig 3 successful the archetypal Test astatine Eden Gardens but was moved backmost down the bid aft India’s batting struggles.Sudharsan returned astatine fig 3 successful the 2nd Test successful Guwahati against South Africa but managed scores of 15 and 14.The left-hander has played six Tests truthful acold and averages a small implicit 27.Despite India being sixth successful the World Test Championship standings with 48.15 per cent of points, Gambhir said the squad inactive believes it tin situation for the title."We judge that we tin triumph the WTC. There is endowment and hunger successful this team," Gambhir said. On speedy turnaround aft IPL, Gambhir said, "There are nary excuses. Test matches are astir intelligence toughness."
