Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting defended Sai Sudharsan despite his first-ball duck on Day 4 of the fourth Test against England at Manchester. With Team India in dire straits, having conceded a 311-run first innings lead, the southpaw walked into bat in the first over at 0/1.However, an indecisive poke outside the off-stump saw Sai walking back to the pavilion for a golden duck. The youngster debuted in Tests in the series opener at Leeds but was left out for the next two games.He returned to the side in the ongoing fourth Test and scored a vital 151-ball 61 in the first innings before the second innings failure.Talking about Sai's dismissal and India's struggles with finding a consistent No. 3, Ponting said on Sky Sports (6:29):"It just creates internal pressure, the pressure a youngster doesn't need or someone coming in doesn't need looking over their shoulders on if they will get another opportunity. That's why I was really surprised that they made the call on Sudarshan for the first Test and then went away from him and then went straight back to him.""For a young bloke, you want that bit of reassurance from your captain and your coaches - We are picking you now and we are going to give you a decent run at it and see how you go. I've got no doubt that Sudarshan is going to be good enough," he added.Ponting urged the Indian management to back Sai, just as England have done with Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope, despite their inconsistencies."They've got to show the faith in him, a lot like Brendon (McCullum) and Ben (Stokes) have done with a lot of the batters in their side - Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley. If you trust them, then you keep backing them that they are going to play these big match-winning innings for you at some stage," said Ponting.The 23-year-old from Chennai has scored only 91 runs in four innings in this series at No. 3, with an average of 22.75."Anyone can get out in that situation" - Stuart Broad on India's first-over dismissalsFormer England pacer Stuart Broad believes India losing two wickets in the first over of their second innings stemmed from the situation of the game. The visitors had to start their second innings at the stroke of lunch on the fourth day after almost two days on the field as the hosts plundered 669.Yashasvi Jaiswal lost his wicket in the fourth ball of the innings, followed by Sai in the very next delivery, leaving India 0/2 in the first over."Anyone can get out in that situation but you saw Jaiswal second ball have a big cut at one, missed it, stepped away, shook his legs and said 'Come on, come on' but got into an awkward position, looking square through the leg side and nicked it to slip," said Broad (via the aforementioned source).He added:"But then Sudarsan, that was just all tiredness - mental tiredness and mental fatigue. That's why No. 3 is the hardest position to bat in Test cricket. ou see around the world at the moment, there aren't many No. 3's really settled and consistently producing as there were back in the day because you need experience and the ability to deal with any scenario."Despite the two early setbacks, India recovered with an unbeaten 174-run partnership between skipper Shubman Gill and the in-form KL Rahul. They finished Day 4 on 174/2, trailing England by 137 runs.