Gujarat Titans IPL Team

It’s easy to look over how special it was that Gujarat Titans stepped into the IPL and dominated on their way to a maiden title in their very first season. That was a result of drafting well from the pool of unprotected players, where they picked Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khan, and Shubman Gill, providing their team a spine that was only bolstered as they received the services of high-profile players such as Mohammed Shami and David Miller to supplement them. Gujarat were one of the best-constructed teams of the last cycle, based on pure talent alone — which is why their decision to blow it all up by trading away Hardik Pandya for money was such a shock.

After 10-4 records in their first two seasons, a trophy and a runners-up, the Hardik trade was disastrous, as missing him and Shami meant they had their first losing season in 2024. If nothing else, though, Gujarat knew it was only one year before they could go back to the market in the mega-auction and reconstruct. It was a similar tactic to last time: stock up on talented marquee names, and trust that the pieces will fall together to create a competitive unit.

Having retained Shubman Gill, who will want to make an impact as captain, GT also kept hold of Rashid Khan unsurprisingly, as well as the super-talented Sai Sudharshan. They were also beneficiaries of the uncapped retention rule, able to keep hold of two domestic finishers in Shahrukh Khan and Rahul Tewatia for just a combined 8 crore, meaning they could save money there and go after bonafide superstars in the auction.

And that is just what they did. They roped in one of the best overseas pace options by landing Kagiso Rabada, who they will be hoping will return to the strengths he showed with Delhi Capitals back in the day. They got a wicketkeeping superstar to beef up their batting, bringing in Jos Buttler and forming arguably the best top three in the tournament. Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna are two Indian seamers who are amongst the very elite domestic talents available. Washington Sundar and Glenn Phillips can occupy the middle order roles as well as combine to be a second spinner option, providing flexibility and extending the batting.

All in all, this is a team that has the capacity to look extremely scary, with the work that they have done. There are no real weaknesses, other than maybe an inexperienced middle order compared to other teams, but there is plenty of cross-positional cover with names such as Gerald Coetzee, Ishant Sharma, Sai Kishore, and Mahipal Lomror. It’s a risky business to predict a team to do well before the tournament starts, given how poorly things can turn out, but looking at the firepower and the quality GT possess across the board, it’s difficult to bet against them.