Sai Sudharsan

A tall left-hand batter, Sai Sudharsan is a post-Covid era emerging star from Tamil Nadu. He was a breakout talent from the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) who was fast-tracked into Tamil Nadu's sides across formats and is also remembered for his 47-ball 96 in the IPL 2023 final against CSK.

After becoming the TNPL's second-highest scorer in the 2021 season, Sudharsan made his white-ball debuts for TN in late 2021 and his Ranji Trophy debut a year later. Sudharsan has sporting genes in him; his father is an athlete who represented India at the South Asian Games and his mother played volleyball for Tamil Nadu.

Sudharsan rose through age-group and league cricket as a prolific scorer and played for India A in the Under-19 Challenger Trophy in 2019-20. As he went through domestic cricket, he impressed with high-elbowed drives and slog sweeps, similar to those of his TN team-mate Washington Sundar.

In his maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy season, Sudharsan shone largely at No. 3 as a steady batter before scoring heavily in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy the next season with the third-best tally of 610 runs to average over 76 with three centuries that also included a record opening stand of 416 with N Jagadeesan. The year 2022 also got him his maiden IPL gig, with Gujarat Titans, for his base price of INR 20 lakh. On his Ranji debut, he smashed 179 and 42 against Hyderabad, and a few months later he lit up the IPL 2023 with his scoops and array of strokes when he got the chance in the GT line-up after an injury to Kane Williamson. Sudharsan scored two consecutive fifties in that IPL and capped off the league with scores of 47, 43 and 96 to almost help GT lift another trophy.

His fine form continued through the year - he played county cricket for eventual county champions Surrey with a top score of 73, struck three more one-day centuries in the span of seven innings and earned an ODI debut at the end of the year in South Africa, where he scored 55*, 62 and 10 while opening. A few months later, he struck another century - this time against CSK in the IPL - and got his T20I cap in Zimbabwe although he didn't get to bat in the game.

- B Sai Sudharsan was first picked by Gujarat Titans (GT) at the IPL 2022 mega auction but it was IPL 2023 when he really broke through.

- Despite playing just eight games, he finished as the team's third-highest run scorer with 362 runs at a strike rate of 141.40. The highlight was his 47-ball 96 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the final, even though GT went on to lose off the last ball.

- Ahead of the 2025 mega auction, GT retained him for INR 8.5 crore. He repaid the faith by winning the Orange Cap with 759 runs. His strike rate of 156.17 in 2025 was also his best in any season.

- That season, he also formed a formidable opening partnership with GT captain Shubman Gill; the two became only the third pair with more than 900 partnership runs in a season.