Sai Sudharsan Out of Vijay Hazare Trophy, Gujarat Titans’ IPL 2026 Plans at Risk

Sai Sudharsan will not play in the rest of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26. The Tamil Nadu player has a rib injury and has reported to the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE). Sudharsan injured the right side of his rib cage during his 51-run knock against Madhya Pradesh on December 26, diving to avoid a run-out while running between the wickets.

Subsequently, Sudharsan didn’t feature in Tamil Nadu’s next two fixtures against Karnataka on December 29 and Jharkhand on December 31. In fact, he had checked into the CoE in Bengaluru on the day of the Karnataka game.

About a week ago, the 24-year-old sustained an injury to his ribs while batting in training when he got hit with a ball; however, the player did not pay much attention at that time to the discomfort he was feeling, indicating it was only slight. His symptoms eventually progressed to the point where he suffered the injury while trying to catch a ball; now he has been diagnosed via a CT scan as having a small (undisplaced) fracture on his right seventh rib.

Sai Sudharsan Out of Vijay Hazare Trophy Due to Rib Injury, Recovery Underway

Sudharsan has already started his recovery. He is focusing on lower-body fitness and exercises, while the CoE medical staff is keeping track of his progress. He won’t be doing any upper-body training to ensure his injured rib heals properly. It’s expected that within 7-10 days, when his pain reduces, he’ll start focusing on an upper-body strength and conditioning routine.

“Sai is undertaking lower-body strength and conditioning work with appropriate protection to the injured rib to facilitate healing, and he has responded well to the program. Upper-body training will be introduced once acute symptoms settle over the next seven to ten days, following which he will be gradually progressed into a structured upper-body strength and conditioning program,” a CoE report said as per ESPNcricinfo.

The Gujarat Titans (GT) have some concerns. An undisplaced fracture means that it’s broken, but the pieces weren’t far enough apart to be considered misaligned. An undisplaced fracture generally doesn’t require surgery, however Sudharsan may miss anywhere from 6 to 8 weeks of play. Sudharsan might miss the VHT and perhaps the initial matches of the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy second leg, but will be available for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026.