Sai Sudharsan signs off with aim to improve his T20 game in a campaign that saw him accumulate 700+ runs this season.
Sai Sudharsan signs off as he reflects on a stellar season where he signed off as the leading run-scorer.
Although he helped his side reach the IPL 2025 playoffs, Gujarat Titans (GT) opener Sai Sudharsan, who now holds the Orange Cap, feels he still has “a lot of things to improve” in his T20 game. Before playing T20s again, Sai Sudharsan wants to work on a few more things. He has already made his white-ball debut for India and has been selected for the forthcoming five-Test series in England, which begins next month.
“I mean, playing for the country is obviously a dream for everybody, so I would love to do that,” he said when asked about his chances for the T20 World Cup next year after GT crashed out of the IPL in the Eliminator. “But I’m not thinking on those lines because if you see about the season, I have a lot of things to improve as a T20 batter. There are so many facets of the game, or so many sectors, I should improve when I play T20 again. So I’m focusing more on that. Of course, when I get an opportunity, I will give my best for the country.
“It’s good to see that I had a good season or I was consistent enough for my team, but I think when the job is not finished, you don’t get the ultimate satisfaction when you get back home. So, definitely, there’s a lot of disappointment in the [team] environment because of the way we played the first 12 or 13 games, which was fantastic to see as a group or as a team from outside. Even when in hindsight you look at a season like this, I think our team was so good they did a lot of jobs really well. So finishing a tournament like this, definitely it doesn’t give that complete satisfaction. But, yeah, appreciating the performances and of course learning from it is the is the thing forward.”
With a brilliant 80 off 49 balls, Sai Sudharsan guided GT to victory over the Mumbai Indians (MI) on Friday night, keeping the difficult chase of 229 in jeopardy till he was there. However, GT faltered after being dismissed by Richard Gleeson in the sixteenth over, with the equation after the dismissal reading 59 from 26.
This season, the GT batsmen that put in the most work were skipper Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan, who together amassed 912 runs, the third-highest total in an IPL season. However, early in the chase against MI, Sai Sudharsan was given the task after Gill was dismissed for one in the first over.
“Yes, definitely a batter like Shubi when he gets out, it creates a little difficulty in the environment and of course in the game of play,” Sai Sudharsan said. “So, again, I was aware of it and it was clear that we know how Kusal bhai can play. We’ve seen him play quite a lot of times in the nets, so I was confident enough that we could get those runs, of course. And I was believing in myself, I was even telling Kusal bhai that we can definitely do it if we have a good play. And likewise, we had a fantastic powerplay. I think we believe more on ourselves and took the game forward and the game was on course for a long period of time.”