Gujrat Titans now have a new task after two incredible seasons.
Where the Gujarat Titans concluded their IPL season 2023
runners-up, following a third-day final loss to the Chennai Super Kings due to inclement weather. However, they had finished first in their first two IPL seasons, topping the league table with ten wins and four losses.
Titans squad for IPL 2024
Shubman Gill (captain), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Matthew Wade* (wk), Sai Sudharsan, David Miller*, M Shahrukh Khan, Kane Williamson*, Robin Minz, Azmatullah Omarzai*, Rashid Khan*, Manav Suthar, Abhinav Manohar, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Spencer Johnson*, Josh Little*, Noor Ahmad*, Mohit Sharma,, Kartik Tyagi, Darshan Nalkande, R Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav, Sushant Mishra, Umesh Yadav.
Player availability
The news that Mohammed Shami would miss the entire season due to an ankle injury sustained during the 2023 ODI World Cup was devastating for the Titans. In the 2023 Indian Premier League, he took the most wickets (28) and helped the Titans make breakthroughs during the powerplay (17 wickets, the most in that phase). The fast bowler from Tamil Nadu, Sandeep Warrier, was brought in to replace Shami.
Matthew Wade, the wicketkeeper, will also miss the season’s opening to represent Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield final. After his bike accident in Ranchi earlier this month, uncapped wicketkeeper-batter Robin Minz, whom the Titans acquired for INR 3.6 crore, is also a questionable starter.
What’s new for the Titans in 2024
Shubman Gill, their new captain, will be captaining a team for the first time in the IPL. Following the Titans’ trade of Hardik Pandya, their captain for the first two seasons, to the Mumbai Indians, the team’s top run scorer from the previous season was handed the mantle of captain. Gill has only skippered two T20 matches, both of which were for his state team Punjab in 2019–20.
At the auction, the Titans purchased Australia’s left-arm fast bowler Spencer Johnson and Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai, an all-rounder. As a top-six batsman who can also bowl, Omarzai can play the role of an all-rounder, just as Hardik did when he was healthy. Fast bowler Umesh Yadav and finisher M Shahrukh Khan are also new additions to their team, giving their Indian players more depth.
Last season, Titans had to play without their new addition, Kane Williamson, who tore his ACL in the opening game against CSK. Now that he’s fully recovered, he can offer stability at the top of the order.
The positive about GT
After a protracted injury layoff, one of the Titans’ biggest assets, Rashid Khan, made his long-awaited comeback to action during Afghanistan’s recent T20I series against Ireland. He took eight wickets in the victory (2-1). It was his first game back after having surgery to treat a back injury he sustained during the 2023 ODI World Cup.
Prior to the IPL, a number of important Titans players have also been playing exceptionally well. Rahul Tewatia had a successful domestic white-ball season, hitting 143.18 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and taking 15 wickets with his legspin in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy while scoring 352 runs at a strike rate of 131.34.
Sai Sudharsan made his India debut during the previous IPL season and scored back-to-back half-centuries in his opening two ODI matches in South Africa. With 53 wickets and two half-centuries at bat, R Sai Kishore emerged as the Ranji Trophy’s top wicket-taker. In Hardik’s absence, Vijay Shankar, who scored runs in the Ranji Trophy, is anticipated to assume greater responsibility. Although Shahrukh’s domestic season was quiet, he has been honing his offspin, which helped him take 17 wickets in the TNPL.
David Miller, one of their international players, returned to India after scoring a fifty-and-a-century in the One-Day Internationals for Paarl Royals, finishing second in the SA20.
The poor quality about GT
Umesh’s 8.78 in the first six overs of the 2023 Indian Premier League was the highest economy rate among the five bowlers who bowled at least 14 powerplay overs. Mohit Sharma has a higher T20 economy rate of 9.19 and 8.08, respectively, in the middle and death, while Kartik Tyagi and Darshan Nalkande are less effective.
