Virat Kohli has withdrawn his name from the first two matches of the five-match Test series against England, leaving only one question on everyone's lips: who will replace Virat Kohli in the first two matches? Meanwhile, Aakash Chopra has suggested replacing Kohli. He also said that he makes some strange suggestions, but not wrong.
In fact, Aakash Chopra took 22-year-old Sai Sudarshan's name to replace Virat Kohli. Sudarshan recently made his international debut in the ODI series played on the South Africa tour. Sudarshan is the same player who played a brilliant innings of 96 runs for Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2023 final with the help of 8 fours and 6 sixes in 47 balls.
Sudarshan recently played an innings of 97 runs in the first unofficial Test against England Lions. Sudarshan is part of India-A against England Lions. In such a situation, Sudarshan, a left-handed batsman, can prove to be a good replacement for Kohli.
On his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra said, “The third left-hander who comes to my mind is Sai Sudarshan. This is a somewhat unconventional suggestion, but not wrong. He scored runs in the IPL final.”
Sudarshan is a run-scorer in all three formats. He scored runs in the T20 format via IPL, in the red-ball format via First Class and in the ODI series against South Africa. Speaking about Sudarshan, the former India player further said, “He has scored runs in all three formats. He scored runs in the first two innings of ODI and scored more than 90 runs against the Lions of England. He's consistently scoring runs and keeping things clean.” The way he plays seems made for Test cricket.
Sai Sudarshan, who plays for Tamil Nadu, has played 15 first-class matches so far, batting in 25 innings and scoring 989 runs at an average of 39.56. During this period, he scored two centuries and four half-centuries.