Parthiv Patel, the Gujarat Titans assistant coach, provided an update on GT opener Sai Sudharsan after the player suffered a freak injury following a blow to his elbow.
The Gujarat Titans have had a promising run in IPL 2026 after a poor start to the season. After that win against the Delhi Capitals, they never looked back, and having played 13 matches this season, they are in the second position with 16 points.
The Titans clashed against the Kolkata Knight Riders in the last match, and the KKR batters surprisingly scored a mammoth 247 runs against the toughest of bowling lineups. The GT batters, despite all attempts, could not chase the mammoth total and lost the match by a margin of 29 runs.
“Sai’s injury came at the wrong time for us”: GT coach Parthiv Patel on Sai Sudharsan’s significance
Sai Sudharsan has been GT’s best batter this season and started off the innings on a promising note for the Titans. He hit some boundaries with much effort against the likes of Kartik Tyagi and Saurabh Dubey. However, his injury on the last ball from Kartik Tyagi resulted in a major fiasco.
“Obviously, this is a kind of pitch where you want your set batter to continue, and it is not always easy for a new batter to come in and find that momentum. So yes, definitely that injury came at the wrong time for us, because Sai Sudharsan was batting very well.
“But these are part of the game; you can’t do anything about it. We do have quality batters, but it is what it is. Can’t do much about it,” said the GT coach, Parthiv Patel.
“It was a direct impact on the elbow,” Patel updates on Sudharsan’s injury status
Parthiv Patel had opined correctly that Sudharsan, who was an in-form batter for the Titans, could manifest something special had he continued his innings without the injury break.
Sudharsan came out to bat alongside the skipper Shubman Gill, but was retired hurt on the final ball of the third over of the game. Kartik Tyagi’s deadly ball struck him sharply at the elbow, and he was noticeably distressed after the blow.
“It was a good thing that he could come out later and bat. It was a direct impact on the elbow, but it was good that he could bat again,” claimed Parthiv Patel.
Sai Sudharsan tops the Orange Cap list in IPL 2026
Sai Sudharsan, the left-handed batting master, has been the most consistent young talent in the IPL ever since the IPL 2023 season. He also emerged as the fastest to 2000+ runs in the history of the IPL, breaking the former record held by the legendary Chris Gayle.
In this season as well, Sudharsan amassed 554 runs across 13 innings and is currently averaging 46.17 while striking at nearly 160. He was also the Orange Cap winner in the last season for the Gujarat Titans with 700+ runs. This time as well, he is at the top of the Orange Cap leaderboard.