By BD Narayankar
Bengaluru, Oct 29 (UNI) The sound returned before the man did — that booming laugh, that easy swagger, that familiar electricity that used to run through India’s dressing room like live wire. Rishabh Pant is back; with him, the India A team has begun to breathe differently again.
Sai Sudharsan, the quiet craftsman in the corner, has felt the jolt too. “Rishabh bhai said it right at the start — we are here to win,” he told UNI, eyes glinting with the kind of calm assurance that only conviction lends.
“The message was clear, simple and strong. His presence lifts everyone. The same courage, the same fire — it’s great to have him back.”
You can sense it — the players walk taller, the chatter is sharper, and somewhere in the huddle, the pulse of Indian cricket beats a little louder. Pant, rebuilt and reborn after his injury, has brought with him a reminder of why this game is played with both madness and method.
“He looks fitter, stronger,” Sudharsan smiled. “Sometimes an injury gives you time to build what constant travel never allows. He’s used that time perfectly.”
And as Pant reclaims his place behind the stumps, Sudharsan holds his ground at number three — the invisible bridge between India’s dauntless openers and its daring middle order.
“Number three is also like opening,” he said with the straight-faced clarity of someone who has done his homework. “You face the new ball, you set the rhythm, you steady the innings. Whether I open or come one down, the responsibility is the same — to set the tone for India.”
It’s the kind of statement that makes you look twice at the young man from Tamil Nadu — measured, self-contained, but with the quiet steel that used to define India’s great batting men. And perhaps it’s no coincidence that his calm comes from one of the sharpest minds in Indian cricket today.
“After our first game, GG sir called me aside at the Kotla nets,” Sudharsan recalled. “He said, ‘You are here for a reason. Don’t get desperate for runs. You’re one of the best in the country.’ When someone like Gautam Gambhir tells you that, it hits differently. It gave me freedom. It changed how I looked at my game.”
That word — freedom — runs through Sudharsan’s cricket like a quiet refrain. Freedom to express. Freedom from the fear of failure. Freedom to fight.
“If I start thinking about cementing my place,” he said, “I’ll play for myself — and that’s not who I am. My goal is to win sessions, to fight for India. Runs are just a byproduct.”
There’s an almost old-school simplicity in his outlook — no talk of strike rates, no obsession with milestones. Just the discipline of rhythm and the dignity of purpose.
“At this level, everyone’s technically sound,” he explained. “What separates you is your tactical reading — how you use angles, how you set up bowlers. That’s what I’m refining.”
Now vice-captain of the India A side, Sudharsan treats every game as both rehearsal and revelation.
“India A games are a blessing — especially before a big series. They help us read conditions, build rhythm, plan better,” he said.
And when he speaks of the road ahead, it isn’t with the impatience of youth but the method of a man who understands time. “We’ve got sixteen Tests this cycle,” he said, “but I take it one session at a time. Win that, and everything else follows.”
He may only be 22, but Sai Sudharsan already talks like a cricketer from another age — He is as cool in the head and warm in the heart, the kind who values the fight more than the finish.
And so, as Rishabh Pant’s fearless roar echoes again from behind the stumps and Sudharsan quietly takes guard at number three, India’s batting suddenly feels whole again — loud at the top, calm one down, and utterly certain in its spirit.
Somewhere between Pant’s madness and Sudharsan’s method, Indian cricket may just have found its new heartbeat.
