Gujarat Titans Focus on Winning, Not NRR, Says Sai Sudharsan Ahead of CSK Clash in IPL 2026

"First important thing is to play good cricket and win": Sai Sudharsan on GT's approach ahead of CSK clash

Ahmedabad, May 20

Gujarat have already secured a place in the IPL 2026 playoffs ahead of their clash against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Sudharsan said the immediate priority remains consistency and execution rather than calculating qualification scenarios.

"I think the first important thing is to play good cricket and win tomorrow. We are not in a position to think about winning by a very big margin or making a very big win. It's about doing the right things again, which we have been doing, and first getting a victory. If we are in that position, yes, as every team, we would love to close it as smoothly as possible or give us the best opportunity to be in the top two," Sai Sudharsan said ahead of the CSK clash in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

On the possibility of teams scoring 300 runs in the IPL, Sudharsan said conditions and execution from both batters and bowlers play a key role, making such totals difficult under current circumstances.

"There can be two things. One, I feel wherever we go, the wickets have been a little difficult. It has not been so straightforward as a very, very good batting surface. So, I feel because of that, there can be an option, and one more thing is that it's not so easy to score 300, and as a batting unit, everybody has to just fire from ball one. That's when 300 is possible. Also, as a bowling unit that is bowling against, for example, if they are going against 300, it is very difficult to bowl that badly, also to be honest," Sai Sudharsan said.

"I am not trying to say anything wrong here, but the bowlers have to bowl really badly for any team to go 300. So, yes, it probably can be possible in the future to get into the 300 mark, but as of now, I think the game still has its own pros and cons or its own way of playing. I feel it is very difficult for now," Sudharsan added.

Reflecting on the upcoming match against CSK and the previous loss against Kolkata Knight Riders, the GT opener said the team is focusing on a fresh start while learning from past mistakes.

"I think I am not looking at the past games definitely, and I am not trying to do the same also in the future games. It is about taking the confidence, yes, we understand how the team plays, or we understand how the bowling unit works. I think being aware of that and looking for the fresh game is what we are thinking about, and even as you rightly asked, the last game was a loss for us," the GT opener said.

"So, yes, we are taking all the learnings out, but we are not bringing in that residue or that past into this game. We are trying to be as fresh as possible, use the learnings to our best and give us the best chance to win," he added.

Squads: Chennai Super Kings Squad: Sanju Samson(w), Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Urvil Patel, Kartik Sharma, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Prashant Veer, Akeal Hosein, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Spencer Johnson, Mukesh Choudhary, Matthew Short, Sarfaraz Khan, Aman Khan, Gurjapneet Singh, Akash Madhwal, Zakary Foulkes, MS Dhoni, Matt Henry, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Chahar, Kuldip Yadav, Macneil Noronha, Dian Forrester. Gujarat Titans Squad: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Jos Buttler(w), Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Arshad Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, Rahul Tewatia, Glenn Phillips, Anuj Rawat, Prasidh Krishna, Kulwant Khejroliya, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Luke Wood, Shahrukh Khan, Manav Suthar, Kumar Kushagra, Gurnoor Brar, Ashok Sharma, Connor Esterhuizen.

— ANI