Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes the management was wrong to bench Sai Sudharsan after one Test in the ongoing series against England. The 23-year-old starred with the bat for India on the opening day of the fourth Test at Manchester, scoring a 151-ball 61.Sai debuted in Tests in the series opener at Leeds but scored only 30 runs across the two innings. He was subsequently dropped from the 11 for the next two matches at Edgbaston and Lord's.Yet, with Karun Nair struggling for form, the Chennai-born batter made his way back into the side for the crucial Manchester outing.Talking about Sai after Day 1 of the fourth Test on ESPN Cricinfo (2:10), Manjrekar said:"He must have been heartbroken to be dropped after the first Test. I thought India almost played around with a young career because it could have gone completely south."He added:"The way he started out, we could see a bit of nervousness. He showed some promise in the second innings of the first Test, so that was India playing with fire with a young man's career. Fortunately, he showed a big heart, didn't get a hundred, but most people would be saying, 'Yes, we expected that from Sai Sudharsan'."Sai's impressive vigil helped India reach a commanding 264/4 in 83 overs at stumps on the first day."It was the same if you cast your mind back to Jasprit Bumrah" - Sanjay Manjrekar on Sai Sudharsan's Test selectionSanjay Manjrekar compared Sai Sudharsan's Test selection based on a dominant IPL season with Jasprit Bumrah's path to the Indian red-ball side. The left-hander was the leading run-scorer in IPL 2025 with 759 runs at an average of 54.21 and a strike rate of 156.17 in 15 outings."It was the same if you cast your mind back to Jasprit Bumrah. It's not that all of us watching him in first-class cricket saw his great numbers and felt this is a guy who will do well in Test cricket. But, just watching him play white-ball cricket, you look at a few things - smarts, the Test match line for a bowler. Similarly, as a batter, we look at his temperament," said Manjrekar (via the aforementioned source).He added:"If Sai Sudharsan had got 30s and 40s, batting at the top of the order, in IPL cricket, I don't think all of us would have been as excited. But, whenever he got in, he played the long innings and got the big runs. He has a very simple and organized technique, so it was going to make his life at the Test level easier because the basic game is tailor-made for the format."Apart from his IPL heroics, Sai enjoyed an excellent 2024-25 Ranji Trophy, averaging 76 in three games.