100, then 87: how Sai Sudharsan went from 135 in six games to the most dangerous opener in IPL 2026
The first six matches of Sai Sudharsan's IPL 2026 read like a season in trouble. 135 runs at an average of 22, no fifty, two single-digit dismissals, and a Gujarat top order that was leaning on Shubman Gill for almost everything. The narrative around the left-hander had moved from quiet rebuilder to passenger.
Then came two innings in 48 hours that rewrote it.
The 100 at the Chinnaswamy
Friday night at Bengaluru, Sudharsan walked out at the top of the Gujarat order and made 100 from 58 balls against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. It was his maiden IPL 2026 hundred and his third in the competition. He took down the powerplay, took down the spinners, and took down the death overs in turn. The Chinnaswamy crowd, in their colours, sat through the kind of away innings that ends with respectful applause.
The number that followed the knock was the bigger story. With those runs Sudharsan reached 2,000 IPL career runs in 47 innings, which is one fewer than Chris Gayle had taken to get there in 2013. The Jamaican's record had stood for thirteen years. It is gone now.
The 87 at Chepauk
The follow-up is what tells you the form is real. Sunday night at MA Chidambaram Stadium, against a Chennai side that had won three of their last four and a bowling unit that included Akeal Hosein and Noor Ahmad, Sudharsan made 87 from 46 balls. Four fours, seven sixes, and an enormous 97-run stand for the second wicket with Jos Buttler that took Gujarat to a 159-run target inside 17 overs.
He fell only because Dewald Brevis took a fine catch in the deep going for an eighth six. By then Gujarat needed 17 to win and the chase was a formality. He brought up the half-century in 33 balls.
What changed
Two things, on the evidence of the two innings. The first is that Sudharsan has stopped trying to play himself in. The intent has shifted forward, with both innings featuring boundaries inside the first few overs of his stay at the crease.
The second is the gear shift against pace. Sudharsan has always had the cover drive and the back-foot punch through point. He went after the short ball at Chinnaswamy and the length ball at Chepauk, getting the strike rate up early so the rest of the innings could be played in his preferred orthodox style. When a left-hander who already has the touch shots adds the power options, the field placements have to spread out, and the orthodox set opens up on its own.
What it means for Gujarat
Gill had been doing too much by himself for the first six games. He still leads the team in runs but he was scoring at one end while Sudharsan, Buttler and the rest left him alone. The two recent matches have given Gujarat a second batter at the top of the order who can take down a powerplay, and it has changed the look of their innings.
Sunday's win at Chepauk lifted them to fifth in the table and gave them their third win in their last six matches. The playoff math is still tight, but Gujarat suddenly look like a side with two openers in form rather than one captain holding the line. If Sudharsan keeps his foot down for the rest of the league phase, the team that beat the field to the playoffs last year will not be far away again.
There is a long way to go. Strike rates collapse, run-outs happen, and the IPL season has another month and a bit to run. But two centuries' worth of work in 48 hours, against third-placed RCB one night and a Chennai side flying the next, is the sort of fortnight that turns a campaign around.
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