English club Surrey has signed the highly rated Indian left-handed batter B Sai Sudharsan for their remaining three County Championship fixtures this season.
He will be available for Surrey’s match against Warwickshire starting from September 3 at The Oval as well as fixtures against Northants (September 19-22, The Oval) and Hampshire (September 26-29, Ageas Bowl).
Sudharsan, 21, has represented the India A side and scored a century against Pakistan A in the ACC Emerging Men’s Asia Cup in Sri Lanka, where he amassed 220 runs from five matches last month.
Sudharsan plays for Tamil Nadu in the Indian domestic cricket circuit and averages 47.6 including two centuries from eight first-class matches.
Sudharsan plays for Gujarat Titans in the IPL and starred in this year’s final, making an outstanding 96 in a losing cause against Chennai Super Kings in Ahmedabad. In IPL 2023, Sudharsan scored 362 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 141.40.
He then amassed 371 runs in six games in this year’s Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) for the Lyca Kovai Kings before playing for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy and Deodhar Trophy.
“With the busy schedule of international and domestic cricket around the world, I’m pleased to add Sai Sudharsan to our available squad of players. Sai has come highly recommended to me by people I hugely respect, including a couple of the greats of the Indian game, who have seen and worked closely with him.”
“Sai will add to the batting options for the final three games of the season, and we look forward to welcoming him to the dressing room, said Alec Stewart, Director of Cricket at Surrey, in a statement.
Sudharsan is Surrey’s second overseas signing for this period with West Indies pacer Kemar Roach back at the club for the last part of the season as well. Surrey are currently table-toppers of County Championship Division One, leading Essex by 17 points.
Surrey will be without several players for the final fixtures of the season due to England call-ups for the white ball series against New Zealand and the Men’s ODI World Cup.
Also Read: Cricket HistoryThere may be further unavailability due to selections for the Ireland ODI series later in September. Overseas players Tom Latham and Sean Abbott, who have both represented Surrey this year, are involved in international series for New Zealand and Australia respectively.
