Sai Sudharsan brings calm to India's chaos at No. 3

Since the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy late last year, India have gone through five No. 3s. There have been seven changes in all: Devdutt Padikkal took over from the injured Shubman Gill at the start, then Gill came back; Gill was then dropped and KL Rahul took over; then Gill came back, became captain, and took the vacant No. 4 slot, handing over No. 3 to B Sai Sudharsan; then Karun Nair had that spot for two Tests before it came back to Sai Sudharsan.

It appeared to be a late call between Sai Sudharsan and Nair at Old Trafford and for a while it looked like both of them would play, going by signs in the India nets. Both of them were in the slips for catching drills, and Sai Sudharsan did some visualising drills on top of wet covers a day before the Test. On the morning of the Test, India saw mixed signals from the conditions: overcast skies and a pitch that had been under covers called for extra seam, but the dry pitch with some cracks demanded spin as well.

Eventually, India decided to cover both bases and were forced to choose between Sai Sudharsan and Nair for No. 3. India went back to their plan at the start of the series: ask for the giant shoes of Rahul Dravid and Cheteshwar Pujara, the last two regular No. 3s for India, to be filled by a batter who averaged 39.93 in first-class cricket.

Not since WV Raman in 1988 have India handed out a debut to a specialist batter averaging under 40 in first-class cricket. Usually, you need to average close to 60 in first-class cricket to get close to the Test side as a specialist batter in India. They made an exception for Suryakumar Yadav in recent times; he averages 42.33 in first-class cricket including that one Test experiment.

Sai Sudharsan's case is different. Almost everybody who has seen him has been bullish about him. R Ashwin played against him in club cricket when Sai Sudharsan was 17, and he was amazed that someone so young had an actual working game plan against him. He had left midwicket open, but Sai Sudharsan didn't play a single ball against the spin until Ashwin overpitched.

Two years later, the same Ashwin ran out of money in a bidding war for Sai Sudharsan at a Tamil Nadu Premier League auction. At the IPL, Gujarat Titans bet big on him. That is the second big endorsement, from Ashish Nehra, considered a sharp cricket brain. And then, when the national selectors overlook your first-class numbers to push you into Test cricket, there has to be something special about you. Two things always stood out about what the decision-makers would say about him: his competitiveness and that he finds ways to score runs.

And yet, the jump up to Test cricket is a big one. Ben Stokes, who is a sharp and instinctive captain, wasted little time in actually attempting to get him caught down the leg side. And he did oblige England with two leg-side dismissals. Test cricket can be ruthless: he had to make way for the next two Tests for the sake of the balance of the side.

Back at No. 3 now, on a pitch that was already showing signs of uneven bounce and appreciable sideways movement, Sai Sudharsan showed those two exact qualities: competitiveness and finding a way.

"It was actually a really enjoyable experience," Sai Sudharsan said of the contest against the short ball and Stokes. "Because the best bowler in the country is steaming in, trying to hit you hard, and you were batting there and giving your best for the team. That's one of the best feelings you can have. And of course playing against England on their home soil, definitely, you have to be ready for that aggressive nature. So I enjoyed it very well."

Stokes, in particular, troubled him the most, both with his straight lines and short-pitched bowling. He also tried to get under his skin when Sai Sudharsan took him on and hit a four. Stokes clapped him all the way back from his follow-through. And since Sai Sudharsan was running his runs after hitting the pull, he could see Stokes right in his face. And, as he said it, he enjoyed it.

For an innings that can be considered slow by many used to modern batting pace, Sai Sudharsan played at least five shots that will make any highlights reel: two dismissive pulls with his front leg in the air a la Gordon Greenidge, a back-foot punch for four off Stokes, and two whippy cover-drives against spin. He was, as has been said of him, finding ways.

Between scoring shots, Sai Sudharsan had to endure looking scratchy at times. If he was slightly unlucky at Headingley for getting out the way he did, he was slightly lucky Jamie Smith dropped him when he again tickled one down the leg side. "If he would've taken the catch, I would walked off," he said matter-of-factly. "That's about it."

Sai Sudharsan's innings was crucial for India in this match because England hadn't necessarily made full use of the conditions in the first session and were beginning to make amends after lunch. He walked in at the fall of yet another wicket just before or after a break. He weathered the storm the way India have been desperate for their No. 3 to do even as wickets fell at the other end.

This was the first half-century by an India No. 3 in nine Tests starting from that Border-Gavaskar Trophy. There will be days when Sai Sudharsan will be more fluent. There will also be days when he won't enjoy the rub of the green. But by steering the team towards a good score on a day that they likely lost Rishabh Pant to a suspected foot fracture, Sai Sudharsan has shown enough to back up the promise shown in him and give India hopes they might have found a No. 3.