'Mark my Words, This Boy Will go Places': Ravichandran Ashwin Sends Wishes to Debutant Sai Sudharsan

Veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin wished young batsman Sai Sudharsan on his ODI debut against South Africa at the Wanderers Stadium in the first of a three-match ODI series on Sunday.

The spinner took to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to express his delight with the left-hander being handed his debut with a post that read, “Like Mozhi MS Bhaskar (movie reference), I have been repeatedly telling this about Sai Sudharsan. ‘Mark my words, this boy will go places’ Ever since his 2021 TNPL debut, he hasn’t looked back. TNPL, Ranji, IPL, County, Ind A, ODI DEBUT now  Keep chasing excellence, my boy.”

The young Indian left-hander got off the mark in style as he powered a brilliant cover drive to the boundary off Protea pacer Nandre Burger’s delivery, and went on to score his maiden half-century in India colours.

Sai Sudharsan has been touted as a high-quality talent for quite some time now and his statement performance in the final of the IPL for the Gujarat Titan shot him to mainstream fame, despite the effort going in vain.

Team India produced an incredible performance with the ball against South Africa as they bundled them out for a measly total of 116 runs.

Pacers Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan ran riot through the Protea batting order as they claimed five and four wickets respectively. Spinner Kuldeep Yadav completed the wrap-up with a wicket to his name.

Arshdeep opened his wicket tally in ODI cricket with a special five-wicket haul against the Proteas at the Wanderers after having gone wicketless in his first three 50-over outings in the Indian colours.