Sai Sudharsan scored a second consecutive hundred for India A in the ongoing unofficial Test series against Sri Lanka A.
Sai Sudharsan maintains solid form with back-to-back tons against Sri Lanka A
Sai Sudharsan scored 168 opening the batting, including 22 fours, in the second match of the series in Galle, helping India A ease past Sri Lanka's first-innings total of 366. He had scored 132 off 175 in the first innings of the first match, before retiring hurt in the second innings. It was later revealed that the injury was nothing major and he was cleared to participate in the second fixture.
In the ongoing game, after a fluent century from Sri Lanka A skipper Sahan Arachchige, the visitors replied with a 66-run opening stand between Sudharsan and Aman Mokhade, who fell for 38 in the 14th over. Sudharsan and Devdutt Padikkal then got together to stitch a humongous 182-run stand to push the home side onto the backfoot. Padikkal was dismissed by Keshara Nuwantha for 94, but Sudharsan continued to cruise.
The left-hander from Tamil Nadu finally fell on 168, trapped in front of the wickets, but not before taking India past the hosts' score. Captain Dhruv Jurel scored 53 after a ton in the first match, while Saransh Jain was unbeaten at 68 at stumps on Day 2, with India at 541-8.
Sudharsan's back-to-back tons after an 81 in the one-off Test against Afghanistan has further eased pressure on his Test spot. He also leads the run charts for the series, with 307 runs in just three innings. Jurel is second on the list with 207 runs to his name.
He had made his Test debut on India's tour of England last year, where he managed 140 runs from three matches with a solitary fifty. Sudharsan was caught down the leg side multiple times, with England skipper Ben Stokes setting a ploy to make his head fall over.
Across a seven-Test career so far, he has registered three fifties, with valuable contributions against the West Indies (87 & 39) and Afghanistan (81). However, converting these 80s into big hundreds is something which he will have to convert from his first-class career, where he has scored 2811 runs, including nine hundreds and 10 fifties, in 41 matches.
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