KL Rahul, while opening a century against England Lions, has contested his place as an opener in the Test series against England. He hit 116 runs in the first innings while opening in the second unofficial Test match against England Lions for India-A. However, a 23 -year -old explosive batsman is also in the race to become a partner of Yashasvi Jaiswal. This batsman showed his stormy batting in the recently ended IPL 2025 that he specializes in opening the thread of the ball. Former Australian veteran captain and great batsman Ricky Ponting has also supported this young batsman to become Yashasvi’s opening partner.

Who will be Yashasvi’s partner?

The Indian cricket team will field in the first Test of the five -match Test series against England on 20 June. This new phase of the Indian team led by the new Test captain Shubman Gill is going to start. After the retirement of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, many big changes are going to be seen in the batting unit, in which many young faces will also be seen. However, after Rohit’s retirement, the opening spot is a big question as to who will open with Yashasvi.

Ponting supports this young batsman

Veteran batsman KL Rahul came out to open four out of five Tests in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, in which his bat also came out on his bat. In such a situation, speculations are being made, now after Rohit Sharma’s retirement, the management can take him as an opener. However, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has chosen Sai Sudarshan for this role. Ponting said that this is the right time to give this 23 -year -old youth a chance to debut in the longest format. He believes that Rahul’s experience will help the team in the middle order. Please tell that Sai Sudarshan has not made a Test debut for India. However, he has made her debut for India’s white ball team. In IPL 2025, this explosive batsman scored a run of runs and won the Orange Cap with 759 runs.

What did Ponting say?

Talking to the Indian Express, Ponting said, ‘I said this because if they (Yashasvi) go with Jaiswal and if Sai Sudarshan is the second opener, then he needs another experienced player at number three. So KL can be on three or Karun Nair on three and Shubman can be on four … Once you are set in it, you can take yourself back to third. ‘ This veteran further said, ‘I think it is the right time for Sudarshan to enter the team, to say honestly. Now some changes are going to happen in the Indian team, obviously due to Rohit and Virat’s absence. Every team goes through this phase … I think Sudarshan is ready.

Sudarshan’s first class career

Sai Sudarshan has made his mark as an emerging star in Indian cricket in recent years, especially white ball cricket. However, his first class figures have also been very impressive, on the basis of which he got a place in the team for the tour of England and he is standing on the threshold of making debut in the Indian Test team. Sai Sudarshan made his first class debut against Hyderabad for Tamil Nadu in 2022. He has played 29 matches so far. In which 1957 runs have been scored at a strike rate of 55. During this time, he has also scored 7 centuries.

He recently scored a brilliant double century (213* run) against Delhi in the Ranji Trophy 2024/25 season, which is also the best score of his first class career. His Ranji Trophy performance shows that he is not only an explosive batsman of T20, but he also has patience and technology which is most important to succeed in red ball cricket. Apart from this, in 2023, Sai Sudarshan also played the last three matches of the County Championship for the Surrey County Cricket Club in England and scored runs. This experience was important for him, as it gave him a chance to understand foreign circumstances. His average in county cricket was around 35.12.