Preview
The 16th Season of Indian Premier League is around the corner and fans cannot curb their excitement. You can catch our IPL 2023 Overview here. In this article, we will talk about the Gujarat Titans in detail.
Call it beginner’s luck or whatever, Gujarat Titans entered the fray last season and ended up conquering the whole thing. The defending champs look well prepared to defend the title, having gone to the auction table and came back adding some quality picks in the mix that has strengthened the squad in all the 3 departments. They’ll have to start from scratch though, which will present a challenge when compared to the continuous momentum they had throughout last season. But if their middle order comes to the party again, that also was their biggest driving force last season, they’ll have most of the problems sorted.
Last Season Standings: Not only did they win the title last season, they had also topped the points tally with 10 wins & 4 losses
Schedule of GT Matches
Match 1: March 31, Friday: Gujarat Titans vs Chennai Super Kings at Ahmedabad at 7:30 PM
Match 7: April 4, Tuesday: Delhi Capitals vs Gujarat Titans at Delhi at 7:30 PM
Match 13: April 9, Sunday: Gujarat Titans vs Kolkata Knight Riders at Ahmedabad at 3:30 PM
Match 18: April 13, Thursday: Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans at Mohali at 7:30 PM
Match 23: April 16, Sunday: Gujarat Titans vs Rajasthan Royals at Ahmedabad at 7:30 PM
Match 30: April 22, Saturday: Lucknow Super Giants vs Gujarat Titans at Lucknow at 3:30 PM
Match 35: April 25, Tuesday: Gujarat Titans vs Mumbai Indians at Ahmedabad at 7:30 PM
Match 39: April 29, Saturday: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Gujarat Titans at Kolkata at 3:30 PM
Match 44: May 2, Tuesday: Gujarat Titans vs Delhi Capitals at Ahmedabad at 7:30 PM
Match 48: May 5, Friday: Rajasthan Royals vs Gujarat Titans at Jaipur at 7:30 PM
Match 51: May 7, Sunday: Gujarat Titans vs Lucknow Super Giants at Ahmedabad at 3:30 PM
Match 57: May 12, Friday: Mumbai Indians vs Gujarat Titans at Mumbai at 7:30 PM
Match 62: May 15, Monday: Gujarat Titans vs Sunrisers Hyderabad at Ahmedabad at 7:30 PM
Match 70: May 21, Sunday: Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Gujarat Titans at Bengaluru at 7:30 PM
You can check the Overall IPL Schedule here.
Squad
BATTERS: Shubman Gill, David Miller, Kane Williamson, Sai Sudharsan, Abhinav Manohar Sadarangani,
ALL-ROUNDERS: Hardik Pandya (c), Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Vijay Shankar, Odean Smith
BOWLERS: Mohammed Shami, Shivam Mavi, Alzarri Joseph, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Yash Dayal, Joshua Little, Jayant Yadav, Pradeep Sangwan, Mohit Sharma, Drashan Nalkande, Noor Ahmad
WKs: Matthew Wade, Wriddhiman Saha, Srikar Bharat, Urvil Patel
Changes to the Roster from last season
Major INs:
Kane Williamson, Shivam Mavi, Odean Smith
Major OUTs: Lockie Ferguson
Key Players
Hardik Pandya, All Rounder- RHB/RAM
GT fans will be hoping for Hardik to come to full force again like he did last season. A major part of credit behind GT emerging champions in their debut season goes to the able leadership of his. He had managed the troops exceptionally well throughout the course of the tournament. It doesn’t gets any better than a captain leading from the front, and that’s exactly what Hardik did finishing as the leading run-getter for his side complemented with crucial breakthroughs with the ball: Inns- 15 | Runs- 487 | Avg- 44| Wkts- 8 | Avg- 28
This also made the BCCI selectors’ job easy in deciding the Indian captaincy with other seniors resting. No wonder why, he has already went on to lead India on multiple occasions in the past 10 months across both the white ball formats
Shubman Gill, Batter- RHB
Gill has had a mad run in international cricket since the conclusion of the last IPL. He already has an ODI double century and a T20I century to his name. GT fans will be one excited bunch, hoping to see him cash in on this golden run of his. He finished only 4 runs behind to Hardik on the runs chart for GT last season, but is primed to finish as their top scorer this season. His opening partners kept changing last season, and that might be the case again this season with the abundance of options GT have, but that isn’t going to deter his game one bit, like last season
IPL 2022 aggregates: Inns- 16 | Runs- 483 | Avg- 35 | SR- 132
Rashid Khan, All-Rounder- RHB/RALB
Rashid, as has been the norm with him, gave it his all in all the 3 departments last season. The global superstar that he already is, makes GT quite lucky to have him lead the spin attack. For someone who plays cricket throughout the year, hopping from one league to another in no time, and yet to maintain the same standard whole year round takes an exceptional effort, and that’s what one gets from Rashid. In his most recent assignment, the 3rd T20I vs Pakistan, he conceded a boundary in T20Is after having bowled 106 balls without conceding one, this shows why he’s already regarded the best to have played this game
IPL 2022: Inns- 16 | Wkts- 19 | Avg- 22 | SR- 20 | Runs- 91 | SR- 206
One to Watch Out for
Shivam Mavi, Bowler- RAF
Having spent a heavy sum to acquire Mavi’s services ahead of the season GT will have high hopes from him, and he looks all set to deliver what’s expected of him. He’d be chuffed to be playing under Hardik again, after having made a successful T20I debut under his leadership earlier last year. Hardik kept entrusting him to bowl the tough overs in each of his 6 T20I outings, the same could be happening again at the Titans, and Mavi will be ready for it. He recently claimed about having added a special delivery to his arsenal, which he’s looking forward to execute throughout this season
He had a very good time with the ball during last season’s SMAT: Inns- 7 | Wkts- 10 | Avg- 14 | SR- 13
What do you think then are GT’s chances for this IPL Season?
