Game details
Gujarat Titans (10th; W4, L7) vs Chennai Super Kings (4th; W6, L5)
Ahmedabad, 7.30pm IST (2pm GMT)
Big picture
Chennai Super Kings are currently Gujarat Titans from the start of the season. They lost all of their pace attack, which was crucial to their challenge for a place in the play-offs. Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman and less than Deepak Chahar have done such a good job that the CSK quicks have the best economy rate in middle overs (8) and second best in overs (10.43) in IPL 2024.
GT had a bowler they relied on a lot. Mohammed Shami. But he was out, recovering from his ankle, and he had surgery. Since he is not there, the team is looking at different options. Azmatullah Omarzai. Spencer Johnson. Josh Little. But nothing worked. Fast bowlers are the point of difference, especially those with slingy actions or high new ball skills or variations that are difficult to pick. And when they are lost, it can be difficult to deal with them.
GT really couldn’t. A loss on Friday will end their tournament. CSK must win. They are in a better position to make a run in the playoffs and the finals, which happens right when someone says they want to end their career. Wouldn’t that be a poem?
Form guide
Gujarat Titans LLLWL (last five games completed, latest first)
Chennai Super Kings WLWLL
Previous meeting
Team news and Impact Player strategy
Gujarat Titans
GT tried 22 players, the joint-most this season, without putting together a winning combination. Their success seemed to depend heavily on Gill scoring up top and Miller being there to finish. Their strategy for impact players is likely to be a direct rotation between Sai Sudharsan and Sai Kishore or Sandeep Warrier.
About XII: 1 Shubman Gill (captain), 2 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3 B Sai Sudharsan4 M Shahrukh Khan, 5 David Miller, 6 Vijay Shankar, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Mohit Sharma, 10 Noor Ahmad, 11 Josh Little/Azmatullah Omarzai, 12 R Sai Kishore/Sandeep Warrier
Chennai Super Kings
CSK have repeatedly said that they are not concerned about Ajinkya Rahane’s form, relying on the fact that experienced players know how to get out. He has been part of their impact player strategy and will likely be swapped out for Simarjeet Singh.
About XII: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), 2 Ajinkya Rahane3 Daryl Mitchell, 4 Shivam Dube, 5 Moeen Ali, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 MS Dhoni (wk), 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Tushar Deshpande, 11 Richard Gleeson, 12 Simarjeet Singh
In the light
Important statistics
- There have been many similarities between GT and CSK and it often comes as a compliment. But this season both teams had trouble navigating their innings. GT are batting at 7.54 in the powerplay and 8 in the middle overs, making them the slowest team in the tournament. CSK are not far behind with a run average of 8.54 between overs 1 to 6 and 8.35 between overs 7 to 16.
- Rahane and Wriddhiman Saha, who have excelled at exploiting fielding limitations, have struggled with strike rates of 123 and 118 this year.
- Even Shubman Gill is suffering. From 51 and scoring 152 in the first six games, his figures dropped to 13.4 and 102 in the next five.
- Dube needs one more six to bring up a hundred in the IPL.
Tone and context
If you’re in Ahmedabad, you’re in a hurry, because conditions are getting better with batting as the evening gets darker and dewier. Thirteen of the last 21 IPL matches have been won by the second batting team and that puts pressure on Ruturaj Gaikwad. change luck with a toss. The average first innings total in this period is 188.
Quotes
“You enjoyed the captaincy, it’s something that takes time to understand well, you enjoyed it a lot this season, you are a world-class player, I have no doubt that in the next three games, you will put in one or two good performances, there is no doubt.”
Batting coach of Gujarat Titans Gary Kirsten it is not felt that the captain affected Shubman Gill’s batting
Alagappan Muthu is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo
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