Virat Kohli had recently announced his retirement from Test cricket
Sai Sudharsan has been lighting up the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 with his astounding consistency with the bat. The Gujarat Titans left-hander has raked up 638 runs which include five fifties and a hundred, an average of 53.17 and a strike rate of 155.
Not just the glittering numbers, but Sudharsan’s orthodox technique and fluency with strokes have attracted many plaudits. Former India batter Robin Uthappa described Sudharsan as an all-format player and said ignoring the youngster for the Test series against England would be ‘Turning a blind eye to immense talent.’
The Indian selectors made sure to keep Sudharsan in the limelight as they named the youngster in the squad for the Test series beginning on June 20.
In an interview with Indian Express, Sudharsan described how he was a distracted lad before his mother Usha Bharadwaj, a strength and conditioning coach, had showed him training sessions of Virat Kohli which flicked a switch inside him and put him on the right path.
It happened during the COVID-19 lockdown, after which Sudharsan has scored 1,672 runs in the IPL, played three ODIs and a T20I for India and amassed 1,957 First-Class runs including a double hundred in the Ranji Trophy for Tamil Nadu.
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Now, Sudharsan stands to replace his idol Kohli in the Indian batting line-up and is likely to walk in at No.3, one of the most crucial batting positions in red-ball cricket.
Kohli, after 13 years of a storied yet incomplete Test career, retired from the format with 30 hundreds to his name. He moved on from the format 270 runs short of the hallowed 10,000-run club and as India’s most successful Test captain.
Sudharsan explained how his county stint with Surrey helped him understand the nitty gritties of playing in English conditions where the ball moves a lot off the surface and the valuable advice he got from former England wicket-keeper Alec Stewart.
“Those two years in those six-seven games, I have learnt a lot about batting. Playing in England, you cannot relax as a batsman. It was an eye-opener for me where I understood I can’t take the technical aspects lightly. If certain technical things are difficult for you, then you could stand exposed,” Sudharsan.
“In the first few matches I was exposed and I struggled a lot with my batting. But it gave me the experience very early. I got an idea about how to play in England. I spoke to a lot of their cricketers to get an idea so that when I go next, I don’t feel shy. Those matches helped improve my awareness,” he added.
Speaking of the tips he received from Stewart, Sudharsan said:
“Off the wicket, there is a lot of lateral movement. So, you have to hold the position better. You have to play the ball as late as possible. You have to play it with soft hands and as close to the body as possible.”
Sudharsan will have his Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill lead the Test side next month while he will also be playing three four-day games with India ‘A’ in preparation for the series.
Sudharsan had also played for India ‘A’ before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia ‘A’ and had scored 103 at McKay.
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