Tamil Nadu cricketer Sai Sudharsan had a forgettable innings on debut in the first Test against England as he was dismissed for a duck on Day 1 of the clash. Sudharsan, who made his Test debut at Leeds, was dismissed for a four-ball duck by England captain Ben Stokes in the first session of the day.
Sudharsan is rated highly for being successful in Test cricket due to his sheer technique and run-scoring ability. However, his maiden inning was far from what was expected. Sudharsan has now emulated a 73-year-old record on his Test debut.
For the first time since 1952, an Indian player making his Test debut at Leeds has been dismissed for a duck. There have been only three Indians who have been dismissed for a duck while making their Test debut at Headingley, with Gulabrai Ramchand and Datta Gaekwad being the other two.
Interestingly, both those players were dismissed for a duck in the same match. Moreover, Ramchand was dismissed for a duck in both innings, marking it a pair.
Coming back to the match, India lost both their first two wickets for 91 after Brydon Carse and Stokes made twin strikes. The Indian openers had taken the team off to a pretty strong start with a 91-run stand; however, the game came to a balance with those strikes.
Earlier, England captain Ben Stokes had won the toss and had opted to bowl first. "We'll bowl. Headingley is a very good cricket wicket. We've had some really good games here. Want to try and use the early conditions. Been a long time coming, bit strange that this is just the second series, but we're ready. It's been mixed, some lads have played county cricket, and we've had three days of really good cricket. Usual suspects in the top seven, Woakes, Brydon, Bashir, Tongue, and I make up the bowling," England captain Stokes said at the toss.
"Would've bowled first as well, might be a bit tough in the first session, but it should be good to bat on later. The sun is out, should be a good batting deck for us. Preparation has been amazing, we played a practice game in Beckenham, the lads are feeling great. Sai makes his debut, and Karun comes in. Sai will bat at three," India skipper Gill said.