They are not your modern T20 openers. They don’t swing at everything. They don’t try to hit every second ball into the stands. They aren’t built like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi or Abhishek Sharma, who can make bowlers question their life choices within an over. Instead, Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan do something far more frustrating.
They bat properly, with textbook strokes. They find gaps. They rotate strike and punish bad balls. And before the opposition realises what’s happening, Gujarat Titans are 70 without loss after six overs and the game is bossed by GT’s template. That is what makes Gill and Sudharsan so dangerous heading into the IPL 2026 final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
The pair have become the gold standard for consistency in T20 cricket. Not because they score the fastest runs, but because they almost never stop scoring them. Between them, Gill and Sudharsan have amassed 1,432 runs this season. Both crossed the 700-run mark, something no opening pair has ever achieved in the same IPL season.
And if Gujarat Titans are to avenge their Qualifier 1 humiliation and lift the trophy, their opening duo will once again hold the key.
Shubh hai
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) May 29, 2026, Sai hai
Gill and Sudharsan are rewriting IPL history
Most 100+ partnerships in IPL history
| Pair | Innings | 100+ Stands |
|---|---|---|
| Shubman Gill & Sai Sudharsan | 48 | 11 |
| Virat Kohli & AB de Villiers | 76 | 10 |
| Chris Gayle & Virat Kohli | 59 | 9 |
What Gill and Sudharsan have achieved together is unprecedented. Against Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2, they stitched together a record-breaking 167-run stand, the highest partnership in IPL playoff history. It was also their 11th century partnership together, the most by any pair in IPL history.
Most runs by a pair in IPL history
| Pair | Runs | Innings |
|---|---|---|
| Virat Kohli & AB de Villiers | 3123 | 76 |
| Shubman Gill & Sai Sudharsan | 2869* | 48 |
| Chris Gayle & Virat Kohli | 2787 | 59 |
| Shikhar Dhawan & David Warner | 2357 | 50 |
Just five seasons into their partnership, Gill and Sudharsan are only 255 runs away from overtaking Kohli and AB de Villiers to become the highest-scoring partnership in IPL history. What’s remarkable is how quickly they’ve got there. Gill and Sudharsan have needed just 48 innings to reach 2,869 runs together. Kohli and AB required 76 innings.
Best partnerships in IPL 2026
| Partners | Runs | Highest | Average | 100s/50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sai Sudharsan & Shubman Gill (GT) | 886 | 167 | 63.28 | 4/2 |
| Yashasvi Jaiswal & Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (RR) | 749 | 125 | 46.81 | 1/6 |
| Abhishek Sharma & Travis Head (SRH) | 690 | 129 | 46.00 | 2/4 |
| Virat Kohli & Devdutt Padikkal (RCB) | 624 | 115 | 62.40 | 2/5 |
| Ishan Kishan & Heinrich Klaasen (SRH) | 547 | 113 | 68.37 | 1/4 |
Why RCB’s new-ball attack could decide the final
For all their brilliance, Gill and Sudharsan also represent Gujarat Titans’ biggest vulnerability. The numbers reveal a fascinating reality.
Together, the pair account for more than 42 percent of Gujarat Titans’ runs this season. Add Jos Buttler to the equation and that figure rises to nearly 57 percent. In simple terms, GT’s batting revolves around these three.
When they succeed, Gujarat usually win comfortably. When they fail, it is very hard not to win against GT. RCB witnessed exactly that in Qualifier 1. Gill, Sudharsan and Buttler managed just 45 runs combined as Gujarat crashed to 51/5 inside the Powerplay while chasing 255.
That is why the battle between Gill-Sudharsan and RCB’s new-ball pair of Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar could determine the destination of the IPL trophy. Most teams simply don’t possess the quality to consistently challenge Gujarat’s top order.
RCB do. Hazlewood is one of the best all-format pacers of this generation. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is having an IPL campaign to remember, defying his age on a regular basis. Together, they dismantled GT in Qualifier 1 and forced the middle order to fend for itself. But there is another side to the story.
Gill and Sudharsan have become an extension of each other. “We spend a lot of time in the IPL together, on the field, off the field as well, and then we are in the Test team as well, so we have a lot of conversations,” Gill said after Qualifier 2. “There are things that we talk about, about cricket outside of cricket. It’s very important for us to know each other well, to have a great equation. That automatically transcends to on-field performances.” That understanding is visible every time they bat.
The post Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan: The GT superpower RCB must stop to win IPL 2026 final appeared first on Inside Sport India.
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