Shubman Gill and B Sai Sudharsan don’t play the way Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma do, and they’re certainly not chasing chaos like Abhishek Sharma and Priyansh Arya or Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya might. Instead, the Gujarat Titans openers take fewer gambles, then cash in with pure technique. The payoff has been loud—high totals, cleaner phases, and results that keep stacking up.
Their plan may not look like the flashiest on the screen, but it keeps working because GT’s batting depth—especially in the middle overs—isn’t as overpowering as their top order. The contrast is striking: once the Titans’ bowlers get their hands on the game, totals that should feel safe often start looking very gettable.
Quick facts
- Gill and Sai Sudharsan built a 125-run opening stand that helped GT post 229/4.
- GT’s bowlers then restricted Chennai Super Kings to 63/5 in the seventh over.
- Gill scored 329 runs off 190 balls (strike rate 173.15) this season on the front foot.
- Sai Sudharsan scored 301 runs off 205 balls (strike rate 146.11) on the back foot this IPL.
- In IPL 2025, their partnership scoring rate was 9.56 in 15 innings with three century stands.
- In this IPL, the rate has climbed to 10.27 and they’ve already produced three century stands in two fewer innings.
After Gill and Sai Sudharsan combined for 125 at the top, GT reached 229 for 4. The momentum didn’t transfer into the batting card for Chennai—because in the very next phase, GT’s bowlers pinned CSK down to 63 for 5 by the end of the seventh over. With the chase effectively strangled early, the outcome was sealed and a top-two finish for GT became all but locked.
Yin at the top, yang in the back-foot game
Gill is the “yin” at the start of the innings, and Sai Sudharsan plays the “yang” role that complements him perfectly. Gill has been particularly relentless on the front foot, compiling 329 runs from 190 balls at a strike rate of 173.15 across this season. Only Heinrich Klaasen has managed more front-foot runs than Gill, with 337 off 200 balls at a strike rate of 168.50.
Sai Sudharsan, though, has been the standout performer on the back foot throughout this IPL. He has amassed 301 runs off 205 deliveries, striking at 146.11 — a profile that keeps GT’s scoring options broad even when the batting surface gets tricky.
How they made it click in Ahmedabad
On Thursday, Gill demonstrated the value of his front-foot timing by reaching out and smashing express quick Spencer Johnson straight over the bowler’s head in the second over. He also created scoring windows against Johnson and Anshul Kamboj during the powerplay by moving outside the line and using the width of the crease to force gaps.
Sai Sudharsan’s method travels on a different track. He tends to lean back, make the ball come to him, and then use the depth of the crease to find room. He settles in by defending and tapping deliveries that are fuller than a typical good length, often steering them square of the wicket or behind the point area. Even if his back-foot approach has been a source of discomfort at times, particularly in Test cricket, he keeps trusting the same fundamentals in T20s.
In Ahmedabad, those two skill sets blended into something difficult to counter. Add the lopsided boundary distances, and even an attack like CSK’s—built with a few limitations—had no clear answers for Gill and Sai Sudharsan.
Credit also goes to how aggressively the pair has evolved. They’ve pushed harder than in previous seasons, chasing the tempo demanded by modern T20 without abandoning what they do best. In IPL 2025, their partnership strike momentum stood at 9.56 in 15 innings, with three century stands. This time, the scoring rate has risen to 10.27, and they’ve already produced three century stands in two fewer innings.
Their ceiling is also historic. No duo has more century partnerships than Gill and Sai Sudharsan in the history of T20 cricket. Babar Azam with Mohammad Rizwan, AB de Villiers with Virat Kohli, and Chris Gayle with Virat Kohli are level with the GT pair—but Gill and Sai Sudharsan have reached the mark in 46 innings, while each of those other combinations required at least 63 innings to get there.
GT’s batting coach Matthew Hayden captured the chemistry in plain terms during an in-game interaction: “These two seem to dovetail so nicely together, don’t they? They find a way to keep scoring at tens. 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.”
Hayden then contrasted their approach with other destructive styles: “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.”
As the season unfolded, Gill grabbed the Orange Cap, but Sai Sudharsan managed to steal it from him soon after. On the bowling side, GT also carry two of their frontline strike-bowlers into the top five, with Kagiso Rabada level at the top of the Purple Cap standings alongside Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
It’s the kind of dominance that starts to feel like GT are competing against their own standards—especially in Ahmedabad, where the local conditions seem to amplify everything they bring to the table. Between the disciplined opening partnership and the sharpness of their bowling, the Titans have created a combination that keeps turning big totals into bigger problems for opponents.
