B Sai Sudharsan: From being retired out in last game to being a Titan in IPL final

Let us keep aside the 96 runs that B Sai Sudharsan ended up with on Monday for the time being. There is another significant context one has to factor in other than this innings in the Indian Premier League final.
The tournament in its 16 years has seen superstars hog the limelight, and unheard-of players become household names overnight. It has seen several breathtaking knocks that have left millions awestruck. Even then, the 96 runs that the 21-year-old from Chennai scored against the team he supported growing up – Chennai Super Kings – would hold a special place.
Now to the other significant context. In Gujarat Titans’ Eliminator against Mumbai Indians, despite Sudharshan being on 43 off 31 deliveries, he was forced to retire hurt with an over to go, even though the team already had excess of 200 on board. With the Impact Player rule in place, teams don’t even think twice before forcing a player who is struggling to hit top gear even if he is scoring at a strike rate of over 130.
On Monday, after Shubman Gill departed, Sudharsan’s arrival at No. 3 in the eighth over felt as if Gujarat were prepared to take the pedal off. Out of nowhere, Chennai had found an opening and even though Wriddhiman Saha was going smoothly at the other end, Sudharsan had just reached 10 off 12 deliveries as MS Dhoni was getting the Super Kings back into the game.
On air, Tom Moody had already brought up the topic of retiring Sudharsan. On social media, where everything is exaggerated, the story was no different.
However, the usually animated Gujarat Titans dugout, for a change, was totally relaxed. Perhaps, they had seen now what the youngster from Chennai, spoken about as the next big player to emerge from Tamil Nadu, can do. Born to parents who were former sportspersons – father R Bharadwaj was an athlete who competed at the 1993 SAFF Games and mother Usha Bharadwaj, a state-level volleyball player, also doubles up as his trainer – Sudharsan’s game plan is built on the very basics of the game: get your eye in, assess the condition before cutting loose.
It is what Sudharsan often repeats in his to-do note l before he goes to bed on match eve. In an age where adjusting to formats can be demanding, Sudharsan belongs to the generation that has grown up watching all three. The traditional boy he is, there is a burning desire to win a Test cap, but he doesn’t look down upon T20s in pursuit of it. He is the quintessential next generation Indian cricketer, who wants to ace formats.
Young gun
At 15, he was part of the Chepauk Super Gillies team in the Tamil Nadu Premier League. And a year later, he was part of Sanmar Group’s Alwarpet CC, playing First Division cricket, and in three years, graduated to their first team Jolly Rovers, for whom he played a big role in defending the title this season. In the Covid years even as cricket came to a standstill, Sudharsan would travel nearly 30 kms a day during restrictions only to train in the outskirts of Chennai.
And after a break-out domestic season, where he scored two centuries in the Ranji Trophy, including one on debut, and three tons in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, this IPL Sudharsan is showing he can juggle between formats. While combination and team balance meant he featured in only eight matches, Gujarat Titans have placed remarkable faith in him. And on Monday, it was as if Sudharsan was returning the favour.
He started off taking on Matheesha Pathirana – the Super Kings trump card in the last 10 overs. In the next over, he deposited Ravindra Jadeja over mid-wicket for a six to announce his intentions as he charged on the offensive.
“It was as if he was replicating his homework in the middle in front of 80,000 fans. This is the player who we first saw and having seen him transform from one level to the other, this doesn’t come as a surprise. But to do it on a big stage like the IPL final means it would give a lot of confidence that he can go to the next level as well,” Jolly Rovers coach Ajay Kudua told The Indian Express.
With Tamil Nadu’s Ranji campaign ending early, before he joined the Gujarat Titans camp, Kudua gave him centre-wicket training at the IIT-Chemplast grounds to prepare him for the IPL. “He had a good start to his domestic career. Now it is the next step. Preparation is a huge part of his game, so when we did the centre-wicket sessions, he was asking the throwdown specials to bowl to him from 18 yards. He repeatedly made them bowl the hard lengths because that is what most bowlers deliver in T20s. And then, he would end it with a session facing only yorkers,” Kudua said.
Big-match player
Having played most of his cricket at the venue, where the bounce is higher than other grounds in the city, it is not surprising that Sudharsan is strong on either side of the square off the backfoot. His cut shots are usually fierce, something he used to great effect.
Having done all the hard work, Sudharsan now needed a bit of luck, which Maheesh Theekshana provided delivering two deliveries in the batsman’s slot, which ended up clearing the ropes. From there, Sudharsan went berserk, hitting Pathirana for two boundaries in the 16th over. In the 17th delivered Tushar Deshpande, Sudharsan alone picked 19 runs off five deliveries before saving his best for the last, hammering Pathirana for successive sixes before falling four short of a century.
In the space of 35 deliveries Sudharsan faced, he scored 86, as the boy who once played in the Junior Super Kings tournament – an event conducted CSK to unearth talents – made them rue their decision not to pick him at the player auction in 2022.