Former England fast bowler Stuart Broad slammed Gujarat Titans’ tactics after they suffered a five-wicket loss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL 2026 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday.
The former pacer questioned Gujarat Titans’ decision to send Nishant Sindhu ahead of Jos Buttler at number three position after they lost an early wicket of Shubman Gill.
Sindhu was dismissed after scoring 20 runs off 18 balls and thus the move didn’t pay dividends. On the other hand, Buttler was dismissed after scoring 19 runs off 23 balls but he was the man in form. Buttler ended his IPL 2026 season with 526 runs in 17 matches at an average of 37.57 and a strike rate of 152.46. Eventually, GT could only manage 155 runs on the board after they were put into bat.
Stuart Broad said on For the Love of Cricket podcast, “Buttler batted at 3 throughout the tournament. And then come the final, batting first, he moved down to bat at 4. I can’t get my head around why you changed the role in the final. Even AB de Villiers said it was a defensive move.”
On the other hand, former England fast bowler Steve Finn also concurred with his compatriot in the discussion.
“Buttler dropping down was surprising as it’s not like he’s not exposed to the new ball, having opened so much for England. It does seem slightly curious. The only rationale behind the move was the think tank feeling the pitch was going to get better and have the guy at No.3 to just stay at the crease until the wicket got better for batting, allowing Jos to catch up and do his thing.”
Broad highlighted that GT were heavily dependent on their openers – Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan and once they were dismissed cheaply, it was all but over for the team.
“The problems of Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan each scoring over 700 runs were seen in the final. When your openers are this consistent, it doesn’t give your middle order much exposure under pressure. And when you need them, they might not be able to drag you over the line. Both openers failed today, and immediately, the thought was they were done,” said Broad (via the aforementioned source).
GT was not able to put enough runs on the board, and it led to their downfall.
