Former South African skipper Faf du Plessis highlighted that Gujarat Titans’ middle order doesn’t show much confidence in the ongoing IPL 2026. GT’s top three – Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler – had done the bulk of the scoring in IPL 2025, and the team is following a similar template this season as well.
While Sai Sudharsan is yet to fully hit his straps, Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler have scored more than 200 runs each in IPL 2026. The likes of Glenn Phillips, Rahul Tewatia, Washington Sundar, and Shahrukh Khan are yet to deliver consistent performances.
Faf said he can’t name a single player in GT’s middle order, who can get a century, which is not good news for the franchise.
Faf said on ESPN Cricinfo, “We were speaking about it off-air when we were watching the game and we were like, ‘who’s going to play like a [Tilak] Varma innings here now; who’s going to get a hundred from the position that they’re in right now?’ I didn’t feel like there was anybody that threatens that.
“Current form, yeah. I’m not sure anyone’s getting a hundred. But if you put that into other teams or out through the IPL, you could name a guy. A guy’s coming in and he’s got the potential to do it. He’s got form or whatever he’s got, he’s got the shots. That middle order right now, I’m not sure,” Du Plessis added.
On the other hand, former Indian batter Abhinav Mukund expressed his surprise at GT’s continuous backing of Rahul Tewatia and Shahrukh Khan despite no positive results. He urged the franchise to give chances to Nishant Sindhu and Kumar Kushagra, who have performed well domestically.
“I’m pretty surprised that they’ve trusted Shahrukh Khan this much and Rahul Tewatia, because they believe that they’ve invested so much in them and this is a role that they can fulfil for them in the back-end if required. Nishant Sindhu, who played a year in CSK, hasn’t got a game for GT. Regularly part of the India A set-up.
“Kumar Kushagra’s just won the Syed Mushtaq Ali [Trophy] with Jharkhand. And so he’s just got one game out of position at the top of the order when he bats at four for Jharkhand. So, there is a straight No. 4 fix available if you need it in Kushagra, except there’s inexperience.”
Gujarat Titans will next take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, on Friday.
