Gujarat Titans batsman Sai Sudharsan became the first player to get out hit-wicket in the IPL 2022 when he hit his own set of stumps with his bat after being deceived by a short delivery from Kieron Pollard and had to take the long walk back having scored 14 runs off 11 balls.
Sudharsan became the 12th batsman in the history of the IPL to be dismissed hit-wicket. Musavir Khote, the former Mumbai Indians batsman in 2008, was the first to get out in such a rare mode.
This is the list of batsmen to be dismissed hit-wicket in the IPL: Musavir Khote, Misbah Ul Har, Swapnil Asnodkar, Ravindra Jadeja, Saurabh Tiwary, David Warner, Deepak Hooda, Yuvraj Singh, Sheldon Jackson, Riyan Parag, Hardik Pandya, and the latest entrant Sai Sudharsan.
Sudharsan’s dismissal happened during the 16th over of Gujarat’s chase, after the young left-handed batsman had already smashed Pollard for a sixer. On the last ball of the over, Pollard went short and slow into the pitch to the southpaw.
Aiming to mow it over on the legside, Sudharsan swung hard while crouching a bit low. He missed the ball which went through to wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan. However, the camera showed Kishan smiling and celebrating.
Moments later it was revealed that Sudharsan had indeed hit the stumps with his own bat! Having missed the ball on his pull shot, Sudharsan continued with his momentum and swung his body around with the top hand coming off the handle and the bat now in his bottom hand.
The batter didn’t have much control over his body and his bat hit the top of the stumps that even he didn’t see at first but only realized soon after he’d been dismissed. Sudharsan was distraught, upset with himself for his dismissal and for missing the chance to finish off the run-chase for his team. He’d been batting beautifully in his debut IPL season and was coming off a brilliant 65* versus Punjab Kings.
Fans were left stunned before they had a chuckle about this funny hit-wicket dismissal of Sai Sudharsan.
