Sai Sudarshan returns to Surrey, Cheteshwar Pujara’s stint with Sussex ends

India batter Sai Sudarshan will play two County Championship games for Surrey while Cheteshwar Pujara will not continue his county stint with Sussex for the next year.

Sudarshan played three matches for Surrey and his last outing was against Essex in June. He had earlier played for the club in September 2023.

The southpaw will feature in Surrey’s next matches against Lancashire on Thursday and Nottinghamshire next week.

The 22-year-old will then return to India and play in the Duleep Trophy starting in September at Bengaluru and Anantapur.

Surrey currently holds the top position in the Division One and is gunning to win their third County title on the trot.

Meanwhile, Sussex have released Pujara and retained the services of Australian Daniel Hughes as the Indian batter’s replacement.

Hughes will play all Championship and T20 Vitality Blast matches next season for Sussex.

This was Pujara’s third stint with Sussex in three years. The Indian batter played seven matches before Hughes replaced him. Hughes will now play the next few matches for Sussex.

Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace, in an official club statement, said while taking over the reins from Pujara is not easy, Hughes has done a good job of it. “Taking over from Cheteshwar is not an easy task, but Dan has fitted in brilliantly and we are all delighted he will be back for the whole of next season,” Farbrace said.

He added that Hughes has been top class and has helped many young batters in developing their game style. “Dan has been top class for us on and off the field. He has brought a wealth of experience to the dressing room and has seriously helped some of our young batters with the development of their games,” Farbrace’s statement added.

Hughes scored 560 runs in this year’s Vitality Blast at an average of 43.07, including five fifties with a highest score of an unbeaten 96.