India batter B Sai Sudharsan lavished praise on head coach Gautam Gambhir for backing him despite a difficult start to his Test career.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of the first unofficial four-day Test between India A and South Africa A in Bengaluru, Sudharsan opened up about his conversation with Gambhir during the last home series against the West Indies and how it boosted his confidence.
“The support has been impeccable,” Sudharsan said in Bengaluru, where he will be India A’s vice-captain in the first unofficial Test against South Africa A, which begins on Thursday. “After the first game in Ahmedabad, we were practising at the Feroz Shah Kotla nets. As always, I was the last to come out of the nets. GG [Gambhir] sir called me and said, ‘You are not getting desperate. You are one of the best players in the country. So do not think about any of the other things. Don’t think that you have to score runs in this game or what will happen if you don’t.’”
In the first Test against the West Indies in Ahmedabad, where three Indian batters scored hundreds, Sudharsan was dismissed early. Gambhir gave the left-handed batter a pep talk ahead of the second Test in Delhi.
“He told me, ‘You will play.’ The way he said that gave me so much confidence and freedom. I was trying to be more relaxed and not think about external factors or the magnitude of things. But when you hear it from the head coach himself, the perspective and environment change drastically.”
The conversation paid immediate dividends, as Sudharsan scored 87 and 39 on a turning track in Delhi to help India complete a whitewash of the West Indies.
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