"He has not scored enough runs" - Aakash Chopra's stern warning for under-fire batter after Day 1 of IND vs WI 2025 1st Test 

Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra opined that Sai Sudarshan is well short of runs and needs to buck up to cement the No.3 position in the batting order. The left-handed batter was dismissed for just seven runs on Day 1 of the first Test against the West Indies at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday, October 2.

The selectors kept faith in Sai Sudharsan as their No.3 going forward after his debut series in England, where he had a rough start. However, the batter did not begin the home season in an assuring fashion after he was trapped LBW by a Roston Chase delivery that skidded on and kept a touch low during the 25th over of the first innings.

Sai Sudharsan has kept his place in the setup ahead of the likes of Abhimanyu Easwaran and Karun Nair as the team eyes a long-term No.3 amid transition and Shubman Gill's switch to No.4 in the batting order.

Aakash Chopra stated that Sai Sudharsan can only seal the No.3 spot with a lot more runs before the competition gets to him and the rope runs out.

"I'm a little disappointed for Sai Sudharsan, because he has not scored enough runs to cement the No.3 spot. I'll tell you one thing, one mistake is allowed in cricket, which is to pick the wrong length, but if you play with a straight bat on top of that, then batters get out nine times out of ten," Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

Ahead of the West Indies series, Sudharsan featured for India 'A' in the unofficial Tests against Australia 'A' in Lucknow. He was among the runs in the two-match series, amassing 248 runs in three innings, including a hundred in the record run chase in the second match.

Sai Sudharsan has scored 147 runs in seven Test innings for India

The left-handed batter's Test cricket journey had begun with an unfortunate duck on debut at Leeds in the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy series opener. After being dropped for the subsequent couple of matches, he made a strong statement by scoring his first fifty during the fourth Test at Old Trafford.

However, he was not able to close out the tour on a high, with only a couple of starts to his name as India ended the series with a scoreline of 2-2.