The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League isn’t too far away and the fans are going berserk with all the latest developments around the league. With two new entrants, this season will see a rise in the number of matches being played from 60 to 74. CVC Capitals’ owned Gujarat Titans and RPSG owned Lucknow SuperGiants will face off in the first match of their debut season on March 28. Though both the teams are contesting in IPL for the first time, their auction strategies were seemingly contradicting. On one hand, LSG had one of the best auctions among the ten teams, the Titans could not make the best use of the mega event. As it would be clear by now, I will be discussing about the possibly weakest team of IPL 2022, Gujarat Titans.
Is Gujarat Titans the weakest team of IPL 2022?
The Beginning
Gujarat Titans began their IPL journey by picking three players from the draft. While Hardik Pandya was chosen as the leader of the franchise, Rashid Khan and Shubman Gill completed the core of GT. Interestingly, the management overpaid Rashid(15 cr) and Gill(8 cr) from the stipulated amount for the second(11 cr) and third(7 cr) retentions.
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Nevertheless, the other big decision taken by the Titans was to appoint former Indian pacer, Ashish Nehra, as their head coach. Though Nehra could not yield fruitful results for RCB as a head coach, GT would expect him to turn the tables this time around. Apart from Nehra, World Cup-winning coach, Gary Kirsten, was appointed as the team’s batting coach and mentor.
a bowling group of two halves
Titans entered the auction with 52 crores in their kitty and the first major purchase for them was that of Mohammed Shami. To bolster their bowling, they added Lockie Ferguson to their squad. Though the trio of Shami, Rashid, and Ferguson looks lethal, Lockie’s fitness issues would keep the management on their toes throughout the tournament. As a cover for Lockie, GT bought Alzarri Joseph who holds the best bowling figures(6/12) in the IPL. However, Joseph is an inconsistent bowler who tends to leak runs in bulk.
The other concerning factor for the fans would be the lack of quality 4th-5th-6th bowlers in the team. Jayant Yadav is a sure-shot candidate for a place in the playing XI but he has not played a lot of games in the IPL of late. The team has quite a few options for the fifth bowler’s spot in Pradeep Sangwan, Dominic Drakes, Sai Kishore, Varun Aaron, and Yash Dayal. Given how fiercely Gujarat bid for Yash Dayal(3.2 Cr) in the auction, he would clearly be in the mix for his IPL debut. Yash is a young pacer from UP who predominantly bowls with the new ball.
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A tactical move that the Titans can implement would be to leave out their fifth bowler and add a batsman to strengthen their batting. Rahul Tewatia is certain to bat at 6 and he can chip in with a few overs. Vijay Shankar, if finds a place in the XI, can accompany Tewatia with the ball to bowl out those 4 overs. However, nothing can beat the advantage of having a fit Hardik Pandya who can bowl. The day Hardik starts bowling, his team will start looking way better as he can change his team’s dynamics completely.
A batting line-up of bits and pieces
The real issue with the Titans is not their bowling. It is their batting that would keep Nehra and Kirsten in a worrisome state of mind this season. Jason Roy’s unprofessional back-off from the league just magnified GT’s issues. Though the team brought Rahmanullah Gurbaz on board as Roy’s replacement, Matthew Wade is expected to open the innings alongside Shubman Gill.
Along with Hardik Pandya, Rahul Tewatia will form the core of Gujarat’s middle order. The skipper will bat at 4 while Tewatia is anticipated to bat at 6. Rahul Tewatia was Titans’ ambitious buy as the team bought him for a whopping 9 crores. Undoubtedly, Tewatia was overpriced; Partly because of the auction dynamics and partly due to Gujarat’s incomprehensible strategy. Apart from Tewatia, the team played a major bet on Abhinav Sadarangani. Karnataka’s hard-hitting middle-order batsman, Abhinav, was bought by the franchise for INR 2.6 crores. Surprisingly, Sadarangani has not played a lot of matches for Karnataka. Though he impressed everyone in the SMAT 2021, the small sample size of his career spanning 4 T20 matches has put everyone in a dilemma.
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The team has two options in the form of Wriddhiman Saha and Vijay Shankar to select their number 3. Given their past records in IPL, Saha should be selected over Shankar unless the team wants a medium-pace bowling all-rounder in their top 6. David Miller, who passed his prime ages ago, could be used at 5. However, if the team trusts Sadarangani, then he could bat in place of Miller and Gujarat can play another overseas bowler in their team. The option to open with Saha and push Wade down the order will always be there with the Titans.
Gujarat Titans possible starting XI
- Shubman Gill
- Matthew Wade
- Wriddhiman Saha (wk)
- Hardik Pandya (c)
- David Miller
- Rahul Tewatia
- Rashid Khan
- Jayant Yadav
- Lockie Ferguson
- Mohammed Shami
- Yash Dayal
A detailed analysis of the possible starting XI
After a lot of brainstorming, this seems to be a possible starting XI for GT to take on LSG on March 28 at the Wankhede. A clearly written possible playing XI glorifies too many loopholes for the Hardik Pandya-led team. Shubman Gill has not yet established himself in the T20 format and his strike rate is always under the scanner. Wade has played just 3 IPL games and his technique against spin will decide his fate for this season. The team would, however, hold high expectations from Saha in reference to those from Wade.
Hardik has not played a single professional game since the T20 World Cup in November 2021. Thus, it won’t be easy for him to start from the 5th gear straightaway this season. As mentioned earlier, Miller is not in the best of forms whereas Tewatia blows too hot and cold. Since the couple of match-winning innings he played in IPL 2020, Tewatia has neither been among runs nor wickets.
The onus will be on Rashid Khan and Lockie Ferguson to restrict the opposition batsmen. Shami is one of the most improved T20 bowlers in the last couple of years but he tends to leak a lot of runs. Yash Dayal is young and untested at this level. Jayant Yadav might be seen bowling some handy overs in the powerplay as he doesn’t give away runs easily.
The end
A team’s strength is not checked by looking at its strongest playing XI. It is the bench strength that defines a team’s fate in any tournament. For a team that doesn’t know its starting XI, cannot comment about its bench strength. Royal Challengers Bangalore and Punjab Kings are the prime examples of the above mentioned sentences. Both RCB and PBKS, generally, identify their strongest XI in the latter stages of a season. Nevertheless, miracles happen to those who believe in them. The fans of Gujarat Titans would wish their team to start their IPL journey with a bang, just like the former Gujarat-based franchise, Gujarat Lions, did in 2016. The only difference they would want to see is that the Titans cross the line which GL couldn’t in 2016.
With all this said, I conclude this preview for Gujarat Titans. Personally, I would love to be proven wrong but this squad does not give any sort of confidence as of now. If young stars such as Yash Dayal and Sadarangani step up to the occasion, then Gujarat might have a different story altogether. Hardik Pandya has never captained an IPL franchise and it is a tough job given to a player who’s already struggling with an identity crisis at the ICT. Surely, inputs from coach Ashish Nehra and Gary Kirsten will be crucial for this team’s fate.
Which team do you think is possibly the weakest team of IPL 2022? Do let us know in the comments section below.
Disclaimer: All the opinions mentioned in this article are based on the author’s knowledge. The motto of this article is not to hurt anyone’s sentiments.
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