The retirement of senior players has put the BCCI into a bit of a predicament, as the selection committee will have to look into who could be the perfect replacements for the England tour, which will begin in the month of June.
The retirement of Rohit Sharma and rumours of Virat Kohli quitting the five-day format coming into the limelight have given the board a huge task to replace these greats. One of the players likely to make his Test debut is Gujarat Titans (GT) and Tamil Nadu top-order batter Sai Sudharsan, who has recently delivered great performances in the IPL for his franchise and is among the top run-scorers in the tournament as well. According to recent reports, Sudharsan might either see himself opening the batting or batting at the number three position in the upcoming five-game series.
The 23-year-old batter, apart from delivering great performances in the global league, has already played three ODIs in South Africa and one T20I in Zimbabwe, in which he has maintained a healthy average of 63.50 in 50-over cricket but did not get to bat in his T20I debut. Sudharsan has decent numbers in first-class cricket, with 1,957 runs in 29 games at an average of 39.93. His GT skipper being one of the candidates for Test captaincy could be another factor that might lead the selectors to pick him.
Reports: Virat Kohli adamant on retirement call
Virat Kohli’s possible return to captaincy was on cards?
Though there might be a possibility that Virat Kohli could be ending his tenure in red-ball cricket, there were some reports that mentioned there was a possibility of Virat Kohli taking the reins of captaincy to give Gill some time to grow into the leadership role in the format.
“It is true that selectors did think about having Kohli as India skipper for the England series. This would have given Gill some time to grow into a leadership role, but at 25 and a half years of age, he is yet to hit his peak. Due to Bumrah’s fitness issues, Gill looks like the obvious choice for Ajit Agarkar’s committee,” a BCCI source privy to the development said.
