IPL 2025
Gujarat Titans were blown away in their last game against RR © Sportzpics
It’s barely been 72 hours since Gujarat Titans faced the wrath of Vaibhav Suryavanshi. It must be tough to recover from an assault like that, especially when the player who inflicted it is just 14 years old. And now, the recovery task sounds even more challenging when the realisation of going from Yashasvi Jaiswal – Vaibhav Suryavanshi to Travis Head – Abhishek Sharma hits. In that game in Jaipur, six out of their seven bowling options on the night conceded over 10 an over with four of them finishing with an economy of over 16. A target of 210 was overhauled with 25 balls to spare.
Those are staggering numbers that should paint a bleak picture. However, the Titans can take inspiration from their own performance earlier this season against their next opponent. Mohammed Siraj sent SRH’s openers packing inside the first five overs, Prasidh Krishna had a fruitful outing and Sai Kishore’s stocks rose when he got rid of Heinrich Klaasen. Shubman Gill’s usage of Sai Kishore will be something to keep an eye on as the spinner just didn’t come on to bowl when Jaiswal and Suryavanshi were on the rampage. It will be interesting to see if the left-arm spinner will be called upon to apply his trade against yet another left-handed heavy batting line-up.
From the batting front, Titans will have no concerns with their top order continuing to pile on the runs. The trio of Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler and Shubman Gill are all present amongst the top seven run-getters this season, which is quite staggering. SRH would have been relieved with that win over CSK that has kept their hopes alive. But the task only gets harder from hereon as they will likely need to win their remaining five games as well, starting from this fixture on Friday.
When: May 2, Friday at 7:30 PM IST
Where: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
What to expect: In five out of the eight innings so far at this venue, teams have posted over 200. A stat worth noting is that the team batting first has won three out of the four games here so far.
Head to Head:Gujarat Titans will lead the Sunrisers 4-1, having won their last four contests against them
Team news
Gujarat Titans
While Titans continue to wait for Kagiso Rabada to return, it will be interesting to see if they give Karim Janat another opportunity after he was hammered for 30 runs in the only one over he bowled on IPL debut against the Royals.
Tactics & Matchups:Ishan Kishan burst onto IPL 2025 with a swashbuckling century but his returns have dwindled since then. He has had his previous struggles against two of GT’s spinners in Washington Sundar and Rashid Khan. Kishan has a low strike-rate of 89.36 and 116.41 respectively, with the Afghan legspinner having dismissed him twice previously as well.
Probable XII: Shubman Gill (C), Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (WK), Sherfane Rutherford, Shahrukh Khan, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Karim Janat/Ishant Sharma
Sunrisers Hyderabad
SRH did bring in Kamindu Mendis at Chepauk and it proved to be a handy inclusion in those conditions. They will have to take a call on retaining him in the XI for this fixture in different conditions. But after his all-round performance the other night, it will be hard to leave him out. A quicker option in the form of Simarjeet Singh could be preferred over Jaydev Unadkat.
Tactics & Matchups:The Gujarat Titans middle-order (from No. 4 to 7) has scored 412 runs in 9 games at an average of 24.23 and are the only team to have a middle-order of which no batter has a 50-plus score. Sunrisers could look to put in the GT middle order early.
Probable XII: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen (WK), Aniket Verma, Kamindu Mendis, Pat Cummins (C), Harshal Patel, Simarjeet Singh, Zeeshan Ansari, Mohammed Shami
Did you know:
– SRH have not beaten Gujarat Titans Ahmedabad having lost both the games contested there, between the two sides
– This season, the average first innings total in four IPL matches at Narendra Modi Stadium is 215 runs
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© Cricbuzz
