Sai Sudharsan realised very quickly the challenges that Test cricket brings with it. The young left-hander who was handed his Test cap by Cheteshwar Pujara minutes before the start of play in the first Test against England at Headingley in Leeds was out for a four-ball duck just at the stroke of lunch. What would pinch him more was the manner in which he got, fending down the leg side, one of the worst possible ways to give your wicket away.
Needless to say, India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir was left disheartened. In fact, his expression reeked of frustration and anger as India gave away the opportunity to really dent England’s confidence after they opted to bat first in the series opener.
Sudharsan got off to a nervy start to his Test career when Brydon Carse got one to jag back in sharply and rapped his pads. He was up against England captain Ben Stokes next. It seemed like Stokes had a plan and he straightaway operated with two leg slips to Sudharsan to strangle him down the leg side.
His first ball to Sudharsan went with the angle. The left-hander played with soft hands and the ball went off the face of his bat towards the slip cordon. He wanted to take a quick single but was rightly sent back by Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Stokes slid the next one down the leg side and there was a big appeal from the England fielders as the ball was close to Sudharsan’s bat. The next ball was even wider, but this time, Sudharsan, eager to get off the mark, tried to feel the bat on the ball but got himself into a strangle and ended up just getting a tickle to keeper Jamie Smith, who took a good diving catch to his right.
Stokes and the England close-in fielders were ecstatic but as soon as the cameras panned towards the Indian dressing room, head coach Gambhir cast a frustrated picture.
Gambhir reacts after Sai Sudharsan throws his wicket away
From being 91 for no loss and eyeing a dream start to the England tour, India went into Lunch on Day 1 at 92/2 after losing KL Rahul (42) and Sudharsan in successive overs at the stroke of the break. Rahul, too, was guilty of playing a poor shot after doing all the hard work. He had been driving beautifully throughout the morning session, but in the penultimate ball of the session, he went at it with hard hands and closed his elbow too early and got the outside edge.
Yashasvi Jaiswal was batting on 42 off 74 balls with eight fours as the twin strikes took some sheen off an impressive session for the visitors.
Rahul put on 91 runs for the first wicket with Jaiswal, making 42 from 78 balls with eight fours.