Former Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Tom Moody said Gujarat Titans’ opening pair of Sai Sudharsan and skipper Shubman Gill have been in red-hot form in IPL 2025 due to both of them learning that how they can move through the gears in an innings. At the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday, Sudharsan hit 108 not out off 61 balls – his second IPL century laced with 12 fours and four sixes. He was also supported by captain Gill, who made an unbeaten 93 off 53 balls – hitting three fours and seven sixes – as GT chased down 200 in 19 overs, and also booked their spot in the playoffs.
“I think the way they dovetail together as an opening pair, they seem to really understand each other’s game. One seems to fall in behind the other if one’s really got off to a flier. So they cover each other and there seems to be a pattern in that throughout the season. And just their traditional strokeplay.”
“What it shows you is the class of that batting pair. They are proper batters that have the technique that can weather any storm but also they have both developed this over time, they have learnt how to move through the gears. They may have only had three gears in previous years, both of them have five gears they can shift to,” said Moody to ESPNcricinfo.
As an opening pair in IPL 2025, Sudharsan and Gill have amassed 839 runs, at an average of 76.27, with seven 50-plus stands – three of them going past the 100-mark. Veteran India leg-spinner Piyush Chawla feels Sudharsan and Gill have mastered the art of never missing out on a chance to capitalise on the bowlers’ making errors.
“How do you build the pressure? By bowling dot balls. Those two are so good, not just in this game; if you see the other games also, where the pitches were a little tricky, they are so good (at) running between the wickets, that really makes their life easier.”
“When you are bowling a good ball as a bowler, you look for a dot ball or a wicket. They turn that into a single. And when there is a ball to hit for a boundary, they are never missing those chances as well.”
“I remember one game against KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) when they played at Eden Gardens. It was a difficult pitch to bat on, but again Shubman Gill made that pitch look totally different, and when the other batters were batting, it looked like they were batting on a different surface. That’s the quality of these two,” he concluded.
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