‘Playing for the country is obviously a dream for anybody’ - Sai Sudharsan after stellar IPL 2025 campaign

‌Sai Sudharsan registered yet another impressive Indian Premier League campaign for Gujarat Titans piling up 759 runs from 15 matches at an astonishing average of 54.21 and a strike rate of 156.17 in the 2025 season. The left-handed batter scored a century and six fifties this year to finish as the top run-getter for his side in the tournament as GT ended their IPL 2025 campaign with a 20-run loss to Mumbai Indians in the Eliminator.

With two matches remaining in the season, the Tamil Nadu batter leads the overall charts too with only Suryakumar Yadav of MI, who is 86 runs away, having a realistic chance of bypassing him in the race to the Orange Cap. For the second season in a row, Sudharsan has tallied more than 500 runs in the IPL and finished as the top-scorer for GT which is no mean fact in a team that boasts the likes of skipper and his opening partner Shubman Gill. His consistency has obviously started off discussions over his debut in the national side in the shortest format of the game. But just as his game, the 23-year-old kept it simple emphasising that he has a lot of things to improve and wished to stay in the present.

"I mean, playing for the country is obviously a dream for everybody, so I would love to do that," Sudharsan said when asked about his chances to make it to the Indian T20 team ahead of the T20 World Cup next year. "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.”

Sudharsan acknowledged that he had a good season but being the team player that he is, expressed disappointment at GT’s heart-breaking loss to MI that ended their campaign. The left-handed opener once again was in the thick of action with his 49-ball 80, after skipper Gill departed in the first over, during the side’s chase of a massive 229. However, the southpaw’s dismissal in the 16th over turned the contest as GT fell short in the end.

"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 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 thing forward,” he explained.

With Sudharsan being selected in the 18-member Indian team for the England tour next month, the batter expressed confidence that his stint with Surrey in the County Championship would hold him in good stead during the marquee series. He played two matches with the side in the 2023 season to accumulate 116 runs before playing for them again the next year scoring 165 runs from three games, including a century.

"I think I played seven games so it gave me a great experience, to be honest," he said. "It improved my batting multiple-folds in terms of technique and in terms of basics. It told me basics are the most important thing in batting. So it should help me and I'll focus more on what I learnt and I'll try and be aware and create those awarenesses before going into the series,” he signed off.