Gill and Sai Sudharsan put their best foot forward, and back, to rake in the runs

The Gujarat Titans opening pair of Shubman Gill and B Sai Sudharsan are not only scoring a lot of runs, they are scoring them quicker in IPL 2026 than they have before

Deivarayan Muthu

Published: May 22, 2026, 1:18 AM (3 hrs ago)

Shubman Gill and B Sai Sudharsan are no Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma or Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya. They take fewer risks and marry that approach with high skill, which has resulted in high reward for Gujarat Titans (GT). It takes serious skill for openers to bat through around 12 overs at ten an over, while playing just 11 false shots, even on Ahmedabad's batting beauty.

It's probably not the ideal opening approach but it continues to work well for GT, whose middle order isn't as strong. Their bowling attack, however, is the strongest in IPL 2026 on all metrics, often making totals of 220 look like 240.

After Gill and Sai Sudharsan forged a 125-run stand for the opening stand, which paved the way for a total of 229 for 4, GT's bowlers reduced Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to 63 for 5 in the seventh over. Game over for CSK. Top-two finish locked-in for GT.

If Gill is the yin at the top of the order for GT, then Sai Sudharsan is the yang. Gill has been dominant on the front foot, scoring 329 runs off 190 balls at a strike rate of 173.15 this season, according to ESPNcricinfo's logs. Only Heinrich Klaasen has scored more runs than Gill on the front foot this season (337 off 200 balls at a strike rate of 168.50). Sai Sudharsan, on the other hand, has been the most prolific batter on the back foot this IPL, scoring 301 runs off 205 balls at a strike rate of 146.11.

On Thursday, Gill showed off his front-foot play when he stretched out and drilled express fast bowler Spencer Johnson straight past him in the second over. Gill also manufactured scoring opportunities against Johnson and Anshul Kamboj in the powerplay by shimmying outside leg and using the width of the crease.

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Sai Sudharsan, on the other hand, leaned back and used the depth of his crease to find runs. He eased himself in by tapping balls that were fuller than a good length square or behind square on the off side. Though his back-foot game has caused him some grief, especially in Test cricket, Sai Sudharsan continues to trust his method.

The strengths of Sai Sudharsan and Gill came together beautifully in Ahmedabad. Throw in the asymmetric boundary dimensions, an attack like CSK's with several limitations had no answers to Gill and Sai Sudharsan.

To their credit, the pair has gone harder than they have done in the past, trying to keep up with the demands of modern T20 cricket without compromising on their strengths. In IPL 2025, the Gill-Sai Sudharsan partnership scoring rate was 9.56 in 15 innings, with three century stands. In this IPL, they have taken it up to 10.27 and have already put together three century stands in two fewer innings. In fact, nobody has more century stands than Gill and Sai Sudharsan in the history of T20 cricket. Babar Azam-Mohammad Rizwan, AB de Villiers-Virat Kohli, and Chris Gayle-Virat Kohli are level with the GT pair. Gill and Sai Sudharsan have done it in 46 innings, while none of the three alongside them have reached there in fewer than 63.

"These two seem to dovetail so nicely together, don't they? They find a way to keep scoring at tens," GT's batting coach Matthew Hayden said during an in-game interview. "They do it their way and do it easy - that's exactly how they go about it. They're extremely skilful and the record of someone like Shubman at this venue... can you believe that in T20 cricket? Sai Sudharsan, again, playing second fiddle, which always hasn't been the case in this IPL. It's always been that yin and yang amongst these two and they do it beautifully.

"I think orthodox play is still in fashion [in T20s]. When you think about some of the other destructive forces in this IPL - we go to our Aussie little mate Travis Head and his partner [Abhishek Sharma] as well, they're slightly unorthodox. What this guy [Gill] does [is] he tends to hit the really good ball for one or two and then he'll do what he did [hit sixes] against Noor Ahmad."

Along the way, Gill earned the Orange Cap but soon after that, Sai Sudharsan snatched it from his captain. On the bowling front, too, GT have two bowlers in the top five, with Kagiso Rabada joint with Bhuvneshwar Kumar on top of the Purple Cap leaderboard.

It feels like GT are competing with themselves, especially in Ahmedabad whose conditions amplify their collective might.

Deivarayan Muthu is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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