CHENNAI: At one point during the chase against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Wednesday, Gujarat Titans opener B Sai Sudharsan wanted to break free. He was stuck at five runs from 11 balls and half the powerplay was already over.
Sai Sudharsan shuffled across against Josh Hazlewood and lapped the Australian pacer over the line in fine-leg. The next ball, he charged at the bowler and presented the full face of the bat, sending it down the ground for a four. In two deliveries, he had gotten to run-a-ball.
He wouldn’t stop there. Sai Sudharsan soon brought out a smooth flick off Yash Dayal, and that was just in the powerplay. He went on to smash 49 runs from 36 balls before getting out against the run of play, in an attempt to lap Hazlewood again.
By the looks of it, this might not seem massive. But Sai Sudharsan had almost got to his third consecutive fifty of the season, taking his tally to 186 in three innings. Now, it is not the runs that make you sit up and look, nor the aesthetics of the lanky left-hand batter. These factors were always there but there was more to it.
First thing, how he visualised playing those shots against RCB. The broadcaster would later show how before the match Sai Sudharsan was at the centre wicket, imitating the exact shots he intended and went on to play in the match. And it included the lap shot that was his six as well as the dismissal.
Visualisation is a key part of Sai Sudharsan’s preparation and apart from the hours of practice he puts in, he sees himself playing those shots in real-time situations. “I feel the most important thing for me is visualisation and putting in that hard work in the practice,” he explained during the JioHotstar Press Room on Friday. “I try to see what the bowler is doing. Then I try to take some tactical advantages from those bowlers. First try it out in the nets, whether it is possible to do against them, whether it is possible to execute it in the game. Get some balls in the ground, then I go in, I visualise it. Then I go in and try it in the match,” he added.
If visualisation and practice is one thing, the upskilling also comes from the understanding of the format and the things he feels necessary to give his best at the highest level. He doesn’t shy away from admitting how much he learnt from the way SRH batters, especially Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, batted last year. And don’t forget, this was the season where Sai Sudharsan scored 527 runs in 12 innings at 47.91 average and 141.29 strike rate.
