6 innings. A top score of just 40. That’s been Karun Nair’s entire resume on this England tour so far. It almost feels like the team management told him from the start: "Listen, you’re going to play the entire series."
And hey, there’s nothing wrong with that; everyone loves a good redemption arc. A player deserves to be backed. But then, why isn’t that same backing given to Sai Sudharsan? Sure, his debut Test wasn’t explosive but to not give him another chance at all? How fair is that? If "rhythm" and "tempo" are the new buzzwords in team selection, how does Sudharsan not fit into that equation?
After a training session, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said, "Even someone like Karun, we feel his rhythm is good, his tempo is good. We want more runs from the three. But the message is mainly, let's really focus on what we've done well and tidy up the little things that have cost us results, essentially.'
Going by assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate’s recent comments, Karun seems poised for another opportunity in Manchester. And if that happens, the pressure on him will be massive, to finally cash in on this extended rope. Because the longer Karun stays in, the longer Sudharsan stays stuck on the bench.
Moreover, the assistant coach pointed out that although batters have piled on runs throughout the series, it's the frequent collapses and loss of wickets in clusters that are primarily responsible for the team falling behind.
"That might be counter-intuitive when you're 2-1 down in the series. But we feel like the guys have been excellent for large parts of the series. The repetition of losing lots of wickets in a very short space of time has obviously been the key feature of the two losses. Probably both times in Headingley and obviously overnight and first thing in the morning at Lord's, we feel cost us the game was losing six wickets for 40 again."
