Shahrukh delivers but GT's middle order concerns remain

Hindustan Times

23-05-2025

Kolkata: Lucknow Super Giants' parting shot to Gujarat Titans in this IPL was to push them into the unknown territory of what happens if Shubman Gill or Sai Sudharsan doesn't hold the fort at one end. A glimpse of that concern made itself visible at Ahmedabad when Gill, Sudharsan and Jos Buttler were back in the dugout with the team on 96, still needing 140 to win in 63 balls. This is where the middle order should have weighed in but barring Shahrukh Khan, who scored 57 off 29 balls, and some support from Sherfane Rutherford (38 off 22), GT showed little resistance.
Too much of anything skews the balance and that is exactly what Titans are facing in a campaign where their top-three has scored nearly 77% of all their runs, with the No. 5 never being summoned within the first 10 overs in 12 matches. Even the high-scoring chases haven't made them sweat.
Only thrice before Thursday were Gujarat Titans stretched beyond 180 while chasing, the top three accounting for 161 out of a 232-run chase against Punjab Kings, 140 out of 204 against Delhi Capitals before Sai Sudharsan (108 no) and Shubman Gill (93 no) chased down 205 against DC with an unbroken opening stand.
For the first time were GT in a situation where the middle order had to fire together and they couldn't. The defeat, apart from denying Titans two points that would have pushed them closer to a guaranteed top spot, also served as a timely reality check.
Gill and Sudharsan won't always click, and with Buttler set to be leaving before the playoffs, Titans need to sort their batting in such a way that it isn't found wanting again. Which might feel daunting since only Shahrukh seems to have got a hang of his job description, making the most of the limited opportunities he has got so far with a strike rate of 188.46, the highest among all specialist Titans batters.
For an uncapped player who has crossed 30 five times in 46 innings, that strike rate speaks volumes about the clarity of mind needed to approach scenarios where the asking rate is close to 15. So on paper, Titans shouldn't have had anything to worry about. But they did.
'After the first three wickets, our middle order batted really well and brought the game on course,' Sudharsan said at the post-match press conference after the defeat. 'From there, having four overs, 54 runs on the board, I think any other day we would have got those runs for the team.'
Chasing 235 is never easy, and also not a one-man job in such pressing scenarios. Rutherford has been impressive with his range, but considering he has been consistently sent ahead of Shahrukh, the strike rate should have been better but it (160) isn't. Still, Rutherford persisting through meant Shahrukh could keep the chase alive till the 17th over.
'In the first six, seven, eight games, Sherfane stepped up and got so many runs in the middle order and changed games for us, ' said Sudharsan. 'Even in Mumbai he changed the course of the game for us. Even Shahrukh bhai got an opportunity today to showcase his talent. So, I feel the middle order is on course as well. I don't think there is some gap or something in the middle order. I feel, touch wood, things went well for all the three batters at the top so they didn't get more opportunities to play in the first half of the tournament.'
A big missing link here is Rahul Tewatia, pulling down the middle-order returns even though he has a strike rate (181.57) similar to Shahrukh's but less than half his season aggregate (69 as opposed to Shahrukh's 147).
Coming into the chase at the start of the 17th over is something Tewatia is used to by now, but his inability to score quick runs—his highest in a chase so far is 11—should be concerning now. That, and Rashid Khan's middling form with the bat—he aggregates 28, his lowest ever in the IPL—means the Titans are moving into the playoffs with a middle order yet to deliver a consolidated performance.