Is Sai Sudharsan ready for the big leap?

B. Sai Sudharsan's IPL success leads to Test debut speculation, despite middling first-class record, in upcoming England tour.

A little shimmy to the off, his stumps exposed to the fast bowler, and a cheeky paddle-scoop over the ’keeper or fine-leg, for four or six. That has been one of B. Sai Sudharsan’s more productive strokes in IPL 2025.

It’s a stroke that has also brought about his downfall. Against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their first home game of the season on April 2, the left-hander’s attempt 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 costly mistake; Sai Sudharsan’s 49 had taken his team to within 63 of the target of 170, which Jos Buttler and Sherfane Rutherford reeled in with a massive 13 deliveries to spare.

There wasn’t a similar happy ending in Mullanpur in Friday night’s Eliminator. The in-form Sai Sudharsan and his captain and opening partner, Shubman Gill, carried most of Gujarat Titans’ hopes after Mumbai Indians stacked up 228 for five in the winner-take-all knockout encounter, particularly with Buttler having flown the nest to link up with England for national duty. Gill was knocked over early, by Trent Boult, but Sai Sudharsan carried on manfully, elegantly, rapidly, like he had done all season. First with Kusal Mendis and then alongside Tamil Nadu buddy Washington Sundar, the 23-year-old kept the 2022 champions in the hunt, furrowed brows and resultant crease lines 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 were on course, needing 78 from 38. Not regulation or straightforward, not by any stretch of the imagination, but there still was Sai Sudharsan, wasn’t he? The tournament’s leading scorer, having breezed past his sixth half-century (to go with an unbeaten hundred), sighting the ball superbly, willing it to go where he wanted it to, in total command even against Bumrah, if only defensively.

The Titans had reached 170 for three, 59 away from a place in Qualifier 2 with 27 deliveries to go and seven wickets in hand. Anyone’s game, really. Until Sai Sudharsan moved to his left, seeking 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 answer when the English right-arm quick bowled a full, quick ball that homed in on the base of the middle stump. As Sai Sudharsan missed, Gleeson hit, the unmistakable death rattle a body blow to the Titans, a death knell if ever there was one.

Sai Sudharsan trudged off, disconsolate, the thunderous wave of applause from a massive crowd that had been treated to subliminal batsmanship barely registering. He didn’t care that he had wowed on his way to 80 off 49, it mattered not one bit that he had amassed 759 runs in 15 innings at an extremely impressive strike-rate of 156.17. He had let his side down after doing all the hard work, he had failed to take them past the finish line. Sai Sudharsan almost knew that with him, the Titans’ last hope had disappeared even though there still was some firepower waiting to be unleashed. His worst fears came true a half-hour later when the five-time former champions completed a 20-run victory, ushering the Titans out of the tournament as they finished their otherwise impressive campaign with three crushing losses when it mattered the most.

Sai Sudharsan doesn’t have much time to mope and brood and wonder what might have been. After all, a Test tour of England awaits, and he can ill-afford, both from a personal and team perspective, to stay rooted in the past. A bigger, far more demanding and exciting challenge lies ahead of him as he prepares for life with the Indian Test squad for the first time. Already, one suspects, Sai Sudharsan’s focus will have shifted from the white Kookaburra to the dark red Dukes, England’s preferred weapon of destruction in their backyard.