Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra believes Gujarat Titans batting looks slightly weak for the upcoming IPL 2022 and they should have gone for more overseas players in the recently concluded auction.
Gujarat Titans were able to rope in foreign players like Jason Roy, Matthew Wade, and David Miller.
They have Indian batters like Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Vijay Shankar and Wriddhiman Saha and thus they don’t quite have the firepower in their batting unit.
Chopra feels Gujarat Titans could have gone for players like Steve Smith, who went unsold at the auction.
Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel, “I totally agree with you because why did they not go? The batting is looking slightly weak. In my opinion, they could have kept more overseas batter options. You have Jason Roy but other than him, which is the other overseas opener option you have?”
On the other hand, Aakash Chopra heaped praise on Gujarat Titans for roping in the services of Matthew Wade, who could play multiple roles for the team.
“They are probably thinking about Matthew Wade as a finisher or as an opener, which may not be a bad choice. Let’s be honest, Matthew Wade is a gun T20 player and brings along a very good vibe. He is a fighting sort of player. So wicketkeeper, opener, lower-order batter, he doesn’t play Tests, so will be available.”
Gujarat Titans decided to go for David Miller at the fag end of the auction and bought him for INR 3 crores. However, Chopra was not happy with Miller’s selection and believes the Titans should have gone for Sam Billings, whom they could have roped in for a cheaper price.
“I am not at all happy with David Miller’s purchase. He might prove me wrong, he has done once earlier also that if it is in the arc, it goes out of the park. It might happen again but they spent too much money.”
“They could have picked Sam Billings, they would have got him cheaper than Miller, he would have been another wicket-keeping option. There were better middle-order batters – I thought about Rassie van der Dussen, I was thinking about Steve Smith also or I was even thinking that you could have kept Ajinkya Rahane.”
GT Squad: Batters: Shubman Gill, Sai Sudarshan, Jason Roy, Abhinav Manohar, David Miller.
Wicketkeepers: Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade
Allrounders: Hardik Pandya, Rahul Tewatia, Gurkeerath Singh Mann, Dominic Drakes, Vijay Shankar, Jayant Yadav.
Bowlers: Mohammed Shami, Lockie Ferguson, Rashid Khan, R Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmed, Yash Dayal, Alzarri Joseph, Pradeep Sangwan, Varun Aaron, Darshan Nalkande.
