As the young Tamil Nadu batter Sai Sudharsan's quick ascent continued. He joined a select group of Indian greats, including Virat Kohli, Rahul Dravid, and Sourav Ganguly, who also received their first Test caps on the same day. After more than ten years as a mainstay at No. 3, Cheteshwar Pujara awarded the 21-year-old left-hander his cap, making him India's 317th Test batsman. In a rearranged batting order, Sudharsan is anticipated to occupy that place appropriately, with Rishabh Pant occupying the No. 5 spot and Shubman Gill shifting to the No. 4 spot.

Hardik Pandya Congratulates Sai Sudharsan

Hardik Pandya has captained Sai during their days together in the Gujarat Titans franchise. Hardik congratulated Sudharsan as he made his much-awaited Test debut. He shared the Indian cricket team's post on his Instagram story and captioned it by writing 'Well deserved @sais_1509 ! Go well'.

He has already represented India in three ODIs and one T20I match, and today's Test debut rounds off the collection. Although Sudharsan averages just under 40 runs per game in first-class cricket, he has been a prolific run scorer in shorter formats and was awarded the Orange Cap in the 2025 Indian Premier League.

Bought up into the Tamil Nadu domestic system, Sudharsan made his debut as the second-highest run scorer in the 2021 Tamil Nadu Premier League. After that, he has amassed 1,957 runs at an average of 39.93 in 29 first-class matches, including seven hundreds, after making his Ranji Trophy debut the following year.

IND vs ENG Playing XIs

India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir

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