Just scroll through the top four run-getters of the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) and you will notice an interesting pattern – Sai Sudharsan (504 runs), Jos Buttler (470 runs) and Shubman Gill (465 runs) all belong to the same side. All three of them happen to bat in the top order for the Gujarat Titans (GT). Now, one can envisage why GT continue to find themselves in the upper rungs of the season’s IPL table.
A little more number-crunching helps understand their importance to the side: In every single IPL game this season, at least one of the top-order batters has gone on to compile a fifty. In fact, the troika have aggregated 76 per cent of the team’s runs this season. Basically, the plan is for at least one of them to bat deep into the innings before shifting gears in the slog overs.
The GT top order followed the exact same template against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to propel their side to a winning score. When Sudharsan was dismissed, GT were 87 for 1 after just 6.5 overs. Buttler and Gill then stitched a vital stand of 62. Even after the fall of Gill’s wicket for 76, Buttler continued to blend rotation of strike with meaty blows to end up with 64. By the time he was dislodged, GT had already scored in excess of 200.
The subtext to the above-mentioned point is Sudharsan’s strike rate in the GT-SRH game, which stood at a very healthy 208.7. The one minor criticism held against the left-hand batter is that he doesn’t take enough risks in the PowerPlay. His strike-rates of 130, 144.44, 171.42 and 157.89 in the four matches preceding the GT-SRH encounter provide some evidence to support that.
However, he upped the ante versus SRH, which in turn powered GT to a total of 224. In the previous games, on another of those flat decks in Jaipur, GT had accumulated a score of 209. Those 15 extra runs most likely came down to Sudharsan ramping up his strike-rate.
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Despite GT’s enviable strengths – the top order and an all-round bowling line-up, there is a small glitch that could hurt the side somewhere in the playoffs. The middle order hasn’t really been tested. Sherfane Rurtherford, who was expected to provide heft to it, has struggled to make an impression.
So, if GT suffer a collapse in the later stages of the tournament, the onus will shift to Shahrukh Khan, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan to shoulder the responsibility. Whether GT’s template continues to function like a well-oiled machine is anyone’s guess.
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