Former Indian batter Ambati Rayudu said Gujarat Titans will need to take a call on Shahrukh Khan after his poor outing against Punjab Kings at New Chandigarh on Tuesday. Khan was dismissed after managing only four runs off six balls and could not add the finishing touches for GT.
GT could only post 162 runs on the board, which was a below-par score. Meanwhile, Khan had managed 179 runs in 11 innings in IPL 2025 at an average of 29.83 and a strike rate of 179 and thus had done a good job for the IPL 2022 champions. But he has managed only two fifties in 56 IPL matches.
GT had retained Shahrukh Khan for INR 4 crore ahead of IPL 2026 auction.
Rayudu said on ESPN Cricinfo, “It’s been quite a few seasons where there is a lot of talk of promise, but there is not much delivery there. He really owes it to GT because they’ve really banked on him to finish games. So they’ll have to take a call on him soon. The yardstick should be – Has he improved from last year? Has he brought in something better? If that’s not the case, then they have to take a call.”
The former CSK batter said GT will need to take a hard call in their bowling department and drop either Ashok Sharma or Mohammed Siraj. Rayudu reckons GT can play Jason Holder ahead of Kagiso Rabada.
“You need to take a hard call and drop one of Ashok Sharma, Siraj or Prasidh Krishna. But now you can’t drop Prasidh because of the way he is bowling. So it has to be between Siraj and Ashok. You can’t play both of them. Or drop Rabada and get Holder, which will also solve the batting issue. And Prasidh definitely has to bowl one over in the first ten and possibly in the first six,” said Rayudu (via the aforementioned source).
Rayudu said GT can bring in Tom Banton in the middle order in the upcoming matches.
“Tom Banton can come in for the middle overs. If not Holder, and they think they have enough bowling, they can get Banton in for Rabada. You need a proper batter. Apart from the top three and Glenn Phillips, you need one more and five overall quality batters in any side. You need five batters capable of playing spin and pace equally well.”
Gujarat Titans will next take on Rajasthan Royals at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, on Saturday.
