Ricky Ponting said the Indian team management must take a leaf out of the Bazball philosophy to support Sai Sudharsan, where skipper Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum have backed under-fire players like opener Zak Crawley and No.

The England tour was supposed to be Nair's redemption series. The 33-year-old had donned the Indian jersey after eight years, having earned a call-up after his record domestic season. However, his redemption tune fell flat, with Nair managing only 133 runs in six innings, with a single half-century score.

Former Australian Captain Ricky Ponting backs Sai Sudharsan for the No.3 spot in the Indian test team despite the setbacks in the 2nd innings of 4th test at Old Trafford.

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting defended Sai Sudharsan despite his first-ball duck on Day 4 of the fourth Test against England at Manchester.

While reacting to the dismissals of the two players, legendary England pacer Stuart Broad said that they were 'mentally and physically tired'.

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.

Yashasvi Jaiswal had a conversation with Sai Sudharsan in the middle to calm the latter down after the 23-year-old took a hasty run which could have ended in a run out.

MANCHESTER: Pictures and videos of B Sai Sudharsan, left-hand batter from Tamil Nadu, doing shadow batting near the covered wicket started doing the rounds as s

Sai Sudharsan said that shadow batting helped him get mentally prepared for the ongoing Manchester Test, where he notched his maiden Test fifty.

England were bowled out 669 in their first innings to take a 311-run lead over India who had managed 358 in their first innings. India got off to a disastrous start in their second innings when opener Yashasvi Jaiswal fell for a duck against England pacer Chris Woakes on the fourth ball of the innings.