IPL 2026 – LSG vs CSK – Kartik Sharma is beginning to live up to his INR 14.2 crore billing

Kartik Sharma started his IPL 2026 slowly. The big-money Chennai Super Kings (CSK) buy – INR 14.2 crore – took six innings to top 18, his highest score till then, but since then, it has been a sequence of 54*, 41*, 20 and 71. The last of those, against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Friday, made Ambati Rayudu say that young Kartik is “turning into a complete middle-order batter” on tracks that suit him.

He came into CSK’s radar for his turbo-charged hitting. He was already training with CSK last season, but then turned up at the Ranji Trophy for Rajasthan and topped the six-hitting chart in the first chunk of the season and then hit 11 sixes in just 83 balls in the T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He is currently CSK’s third-highest run-getter this season after Sanju Samson and Ruturaj Gaikwad with 244 runs against his name, and has hit 14 sixes to go with 18 fours, those numbers only below Samson’s.

What impressed Rayudu the most about 20-year-old Kartik’s 71 in 42 balls – later put to the shade by Mitchell Marsh’s 90 off 38 – was the preparedness against short-pitched bowling.

“I think it’s been exceptional. He was prepared for a lot of short bowling against a team that has good fast bowlers – that shows his preparation has been spot on,” Rayudu said on ESPNcricinfo TimeOut. “His game against spin too has been quite exceptional in reading length. I just think he’s turning into a complete middle-order batter; especially for conditions at home in India, he is looking very, very good.”

Against LSG, his change of gears was particularly impressive. After the 12th over, Kartik was on 29 off 26 balls. He had reached his fifty in nine more balls, with a shot to remember: slower ball, outside off, he reached to the pitch of the ball and creamed it over extra cover for six. In all, he hit five sixes to go with six fours and fell two balls after hitting left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed for 6, 4, 4. On the one hand, Kartik has played a lot of dot balls this season: 40%. But he has also hit a six every 12-13 balls.

“His batsmanship will improve over time with confidence, with experience. He will know his single options or double options on a certain pitch. Once he starts getting into those nitty-gritties, I feel the strike rate also will improve”

Ambati Rayudu on Kartik Sharma

So he has the power and can bring out the six almost at will. Strike rotation will have to be learned.

“He can hit sixes against both fast bowlers and spinners,” Rayudu noted. “His batsmanship will improve over time with confidence, with experience. He will know his single options or double options on a certain pitch. Once he starts getting into those nitty-gritties, I feel the strike rate also will improve.

“I just think his progress has been pretty rapid and he’s looking good. He is a fast learner. He’s learning on the job, poor guy – he has batted No. 6 and No. 7 for the first part of the IPL. It’s not an easy number. But since he has come at No. 4 or No. 5, he has been batting exceptionally well.”

Kartik, as well as Prashant Veer, another INR 14.2 crore buy for CSK at the auction, had been earmarked as a rookie to watch in his debut season. Veer hasn’t got his chances, but Kartik has. And he is starting to make the most of those. Good signs. For him and for CSK.

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