Ahead of the Delhi Test beginning on Friday, India captain Shubman Gill backed young No. 3 Sai Sudharsan to come good, insisting that the team must look at ‘potential, not just numbers’.
Shubman Gill was very vocal in his support for the young Sai Sudharsan, who according to him is "still trying to figure out" his own game. His position was similar to the one taken by assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate on Wednesday.
"You have to give young players more opportunities. They are still trying to figure out their game. And we believe that you have to see someone's potential first and then see their game in the entirety not just judge someone from one, two, three, four matches," he said.
"Once you have given someone enough matches, six, seven, eight matches, then you can sit back and think over where he needs to learn or if he needs to play some more domestic matches or play some more India A games.
"But as of now, we think he's the man for us and he's someone that can play for India at No. 3 for a very long time," Sudharsan had his skipper's emphatic vote of confidence.
Will Reddy get a chance to bat up?
All-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy didn't get a chance to bat in the top seven during the opening Test.
With Dhruv Jurel and Ravindra Jadeja getting hundreds at No.5 and No.6 and Washington Sundar being slotted at No.7, the Andhra man would hope to get a promotion in the second game.
"We saw how he (Reddy) batted in Australia, so there is definitely a lot of ability and a lot of potential. We want to give him as much game time especially in India and want to develop him.
"And according to the match and according to the situation where we feel he can bat up or down the order, we will keep that in mind."
No place for Prasidh right now
Gill also made it clear that as of now, they are not thinking about a specialist third pacer in the line-up and Prasidh Krishna might have to wait for his turn.
"If there would be an opportunity for him (Prasidh), definitely we would be looking to play him. As of now, we want to play our strongest eleven. With the World Test Championship, we would need to win 70 per cent of the matches to be able to secure a spot in the final."
"So, depending on where we are on the table, this is still early stages. So, we want to play the best possible eleven that's available for us in this moment."
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