A little bit shimmy to the off, his stumps uncovered to the quick bowler, and a cheeky paddle-scoop over the ’keeper or fine-leg, for 4 or six. That has been certainly one of B. Sai Sudharsan’s extra productive strokes in IPL 2025.
It’s a stroke that has additionally led to his downfall. Against Royal Challengers Bengaluru of their first house recreation of the season on April 2, the left-hander’s try at shovelling a slower ball from Josh Hazlewood resulted merely in a bottom-edged loop that nestled in Jitesh Sharma’s gloves. It wasn’t a pricey mistake; Sai Sudharsan’s 49 had taken his workforce to inside 63 of the goal of 170, which Jos Buttler and Sherfane Rutherford reeled in with an enormous 13 deliveries to spare.
There wasn’t an analogous blissful ending in Mullanpur in Friday evening’s Eliminator. The in-form Sai Sudharsan and his captain and opening accomplice, Shubman Gill, carried most of Gujarat Titans’ hopes after Mumbai Indians stacked up 228 for 5 in the winner-take-all knockout encounter, significantly with Buttler having flown the nest to hyperlink up with England for nationwide responsibility. Gill was knocked over early, by Trent Boult, however Sai Sudharsan carried on manfully, elegantly, quickly, like he had executed all season. First with Kusal Mendis after which alongside Tamil Nadu buddy Washington Sundar, the 23-year-old stored the 2022 champions in the hunt, furrowed brows and resultant crease strains on the Mumbai Indians foreheads indicative of their mounting desperation.
Even when Washington was cleaned up by a peach of a yorker from Jasprit Bumrah, the Titans had been heading in the right direction, needing 78 from 38. Not regulation or simple, not by any stretch of the creativeness, however there nonetheless was Sai Sudharsan, wasn’t he? The event’s main scorer, having breezed previous his sixth half-century (to go together with an unbeaten hundred), sighting the ball beautifully, keen it to go the place he wished it to, in whole command even in opposition to Bumrah, if solely defensively.
The Titans had reached 170 for three, 59 away from a spot in Qualifier 2 with 27 deliveries to go and 7 wickets in hand. Anyone’s recreation, actually. Until Sai Sudharsan moved to his left, in search of to scoop season debutant Richard Gleeson over the fine-leg fielder who was inside the 30-yard circle. Having overcommitted to the stroke, Sai Sudharsan had no reply when the English right-arm fast bowled a full, fast ball that homed in on the base of the center stump. As Sai Sudharsan missed, Gleeson hit, the unmistakable dying rattle a physique blow to the Titans, a dying knell if ever there was one.
Sai Sudharsan trudged off, disconsolate, the thunderous wave of applause from an enormous crowd that had been handled to subliminal batsmanship barely registering. He didn’t care that he had wowed on his strategy to 80 off 49, it mattered not one bit that he had amassed 759 runs in 15 innings at an especially spectacular strike-rate of 156.17. He had let his aspect down after doing all the onerous work, he had did not take them previous the end line. Sai Sudharsan nearly knew that with him, the Titans’ final hope had disappeared though there nonetheless was some firepower ready to be unleashed. His worst fears got here true a half-hour later when the five-time former champions accomplished a 20-run victory, ushering the Titans out of the event as they completed their in any other case spectacular marketing campaign with three crushing losses when it mattered the most.
Sai Sudharsan doesn’t have a lot time to mope and brood and marvel what might need been. After all, a Test tour of England awaits, and he can ill-afford, each from a private and workforce perspective, to remain rooted in the previous. An even bigger, much more demanding and thrilling problem lies forward of him as he prepares for life with the Indian Test squad for the first time. Already, one suspects, Sai Sudharsan’s focus can have shifted from the white Kookaburra to the darkish pink Dukes, England’s most popular weapon of destruction of their yard.
At some stage over the subsequent couple of months, probably as early as June 20 and the first of 5 Tests at Headingley, Sai Sudharsan ought to obtain his Test cap. The think-tank is presently enjoying it coy – the playing cards, going through inwards, are a millimetre away from the chest and one isn’t positive which of the quite a few top-order batters will occupy what positions in the prime 4 – and subsequently it will probably’t be stated with assured assurance that Sai Sudharsan will line up in Leeds. But it will likely be a travesty if he doesn’t, given not simply the mountain of runs he has stacked up in the IPL but additionally the method wherein he has gone about piecing them collectively.
The soft-spoken left-hander doesn’t have the most intimidating of first-class data; in an period the place a median of fifty in home first-class cricket doesn’t actually imply an excessive amount of, he solely suggestions the scales at 39.93 after 29 outings for Tamil Nadu and a bunch of different groups, together with for India ‘A’ and, notably, for Surrey in the English County Championship for two summers.
Like Karun Nair, who has additionally county expertise for Northamptonshire over the final two seasons, Sai Sudharsan turned to England to additional his training, enjoying 5 Division 1 video games for Surrey, together with three in 2024. The final of them, in opposition to Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, yielded 105 and 28. That alone shouldn’t be the clincher, it goes with out saying. But Sai Sudharsan has executed sufficient both aspect of these innings to benefit a spot in the beginning XI as India embark on the highway to transition following the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Grand alternative
Nearly three a long time again, a cultured left-handed Indian introduced himself in Test cricket with a powerful century on debut at Lord’s. Sourav Ganguly had spent 4 and a half years in the wilderness after first breaking into the Indian (one-day) set-up in Australia in 1991-92. Exactly 29 years in the past on June 20 (the similar date the Leeds Test will begin), he grew to become India’s Test cricketer No. 206, celebrating his lengthy wait with a wonderful 131 in the first innings, batting at No. 3, a slot that Sai Sudharsan is predicted to occupy behind Okay.L. Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Without getting sucked into the comparability recreation, Sai Sudharsan has a grand alternative to emulate the former captain although Ganguly himself will acknowledge that the youthful left-hander from Chennai hasn’t fairly proven the similar discomfort so far in opposition to the shorter ball like Ganguly did at numerous phases of his profession.
Sai Sudharsan.
| Photo Credit:
VIJAY SONEJI
Sai Sudharsan can’t afford to take his place for granted and from no matter one can glean, he’s anyway not the kind to take action. By his personal admission, he has a lot to be taught however in contrast to an ‘A’ tour which might largely be classed as a studying expertise, in the searing cauldron of Test cricket, he should be taught on the job, so to say. A five-Test collection is a large examination of not only one’s talent and skill, but additionally psychological fortitude and the capability to bounce again. It does afford the probability to get better from early setbacks, but it surely may also be unforgiving in exposing technical inadequacies, as Kohli came upon in England in 2014 and once more in Australia in what has grow to be the remaining act of his extraordinary red-ball journey.
Alongside Gill and Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant, Sai Sudharsan kinds the core group anticipated to take Indian Test batting ahead. All these males are of their 20s – at 27, Pant is the oldest, the most skilled and the most profitable up to now – and can try and develop into their roles in the firm of Rahul and Nair, each 33 however at completely different ends of the Test spectrum. The former, who made his Test debut in December 2014, is the most skilled of India’s specialist batters with 58 appearances whereas Nair has performed a mere has performed a mere six Tests, the final of them in March 2017 though he had made a Test triple simply three months beforehand. Even as he’s attempting to rediscover his Test chops, Nair should additionally, in the firm Rahul and Pant and Ravindra Jadeja, carry the youthful lot alongside. Sai Sudharsan is the second youngest of that youthful lot, behind Jaiswal. He is conscious that whereas he doesn’t have the luxurious of bedding himself in, he’s on the cusp of being accorded a uncommon privilege (an Indian Test cap) that has solely beforehand been conferred on 316 males in additional than 9 a long time since India first performed a Test match.
There is little to counsel that, his middling first-class report (1,957 runs in 29 matches) however, Sai Sudharsan won’t hit the floor operating in Test match cricket. He has the recreation to take action, orthodox and organised and efficient and environment friendly, and he’s excessive on confidence, each given his latest heroics and the incontrovertible fact that his captain at the Titans can be India’s new Test captain. He gained’t look for preferential remedy as a result of that’s not how the world of aggressive sports activities works, however he’ll feed off his understanding with Gill, which translated to upwards of 900 runs as a gap pair in IPL 2025.
Sai Sudharsan will get no less than one, most definitely two, warm-up fixtures to hit his straps earlier than the Test collection, beginning most likely with a four-day unofficial ‘Test’ in opposition to England Lions beginning in Northampton this Friday. It could or might not be an audition, relying on whether or not the workforce administration has already firmed up its plans or whether or not it’s wanting for cues (India ‘A’ captain Abhimanyu Easwaran can be in the Test 18) earlier than selecting personnel for the Leeds opener, however Sai Sudharsan will method it as if his Test profession relies on it. Perhaps it does, who is aware of. Among different issues, Sai Sudharsan has already revealed his unflappability in the face of strain, imaginary or in any other case. Why ought to it’s any completely different now?
Published – June 02, 2025 12:42 am IST
