ENG vs IND: Sai Sudharsan first Indian batter in 14 years to bag duck in maiden Test knock

India Today

4 hours ago

B Sai Sudharsan will have to wait a little longer for his first runs in Test cricket.The young batter was dismissed for a duck in his maiden innings for India after edging a delivery down the leg side in the final over of the opening session of the first Test against England at Headingley, Leeds.Sudharsan was tasked with the responsibility of negotiating a tricky passage of play-the final six minutes of the morning session-after India lost their first wicket. He walked in at No. 3 following KL Rahul's dismissal, which ended a solid opening partnership of 91 runs with Yashasvi Jaiswal.advertisement
Sudharsan appeared nervous at the crease, clearly eager to get off the mark. In his short stay, he was involved in a couple of hesitant calls with Jaiswal, attempting to steal quick singles by playing the ball late-signs of a debutant eager to make an impression.However, on the fourth delivery of the final over before lunch, Ben Stokes bowled an inswinger that was never threatening the stumps. The ball started from leg stump and swung well outside the pads. Keen to get bat on ball, Sudharsan tried to flick it fine in search of a boundary. Instead, he got a faint edge, which was neatly taken by wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.Sudharsan looked dejected as he trudged back to the pavilion without troubling the scorers.The young Tamil Nadu batter, who won the Orange Cap in IPL 2025 for the Gujarat Titans, thus joined an unwanted list of Indian players dismissed for a duck in their first innings in Test cricket. He is the first Indian since Umesh Yadav in 2011 to suffer that fate.NO NEED TO CRTICISE HIM: PUJARAadvertisementSenior batter Cheteshwar Pujara, who presented Sudharsan with his Test cap during the team huddle on Friday morning, urged fans and pundits not to be overly critical of the debutant."It was a bit unfortunate-getting caught down the leg side," Pujara told Sony Sports."When you're playing your first game, you're eager to get off the mark, and that's probably why he went for that ball, even though it was quite wide of leg stump. Normally, he wouldn't go for that. But he was tense-it's natural on debut. Let's give him some time."He's a confident cricketer. There's no need to criticise him harshly. These things happen, and I'm sure he'll come back stronger in the second innings. On debut, getting out down the leg side is just one of those things-there's not much a batter can do in that situation."India went to lunch at 92 for 2, having handed England a chance to claw their way back into the contest. Jaiswal and Rahul had dominated the first 90 minutes, making Stokes momentarily question whether choosing to bowl first was the right decision.England bowlers struggled to hit the right lengths and lines, but the dismissal of KL Rahul titled the balance in favour of the hosts.advertisementLIST OF INDIAN BATTERS WITH DUCKS IN FIRST TEST INNINGSCT Sarwate – 1946JK Irani – 1947SA Banerjee – 1948Ghulam Ahmed – 1948SP Gupte – 1951GS Ramchand – 1952JM Patel – 1955MS Hardikar – 1958VM Muddiah – 1959MM Sood – 1960BS Chandrasekhar – 1964UN Kulkarni – 1967ED Solkar – 1969GR Viswanath – 1969DD Parsana – 1979K Srikkanth – 1981Maninder Singh – 1982RGM Patel – 1988V Razdan – 1989A Kuruvilla – 1997R Singh – 1999DJ Gandhi – 1999R Vijay Bharadwaj – 1999A Ratra – 2002PA Patel – 2002WP Saha – 2010R Ashwin – 2011UT Yadav – 2011B Sai Sudharsan – 2025