Former Indian cricketer Kris Srikkanth believes that Gujarat Titans did not strengthen their middle-order enough during this Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 auction Which happened on 16 December. Most of GT's runs in IPL 2025 were scored by their batsmen at the top of the order, as Sai Sudarshan, captain Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler were the top three run-scorers for the team last season.
Srikkanth explained how the 2022 champions had relied on the run-scoring ability of their top-order batsmen to qualify for the playoffs. Further discussing the all-round skills of Liam Livingstone who was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad, Srikkanth commented that the English cricketer would have been a natural choice at the Ahmedabad-based franchise.
“They didn't pay attention to their middle-order issues at all. Last season, they were able to qualify only because of their top three batsmen. They should have also targeted specific players like KKR to cover their middle-order issues. Are there no good middle-order batsmen around the world? In fact, [Liam] Livingstone would have been a perfect fit for him,” Srikanth shared in a video on his YouTube channel.
GT There were a total of five spots to be filled before the auction, including four overseas vacancies. They bought Prithvi Raj Yarra (INR 30.00 Lakh), Luke Wood (INR 75.00 Lakh), Ashok Sharma (Rs 90.00 Lakh), Tom Banton (INR 2.00 Crore) and Jason Holder (INR 7.00 Crore).
Talking about GT's IPL 2025, Sudarshan (759 runs), Gill (650 runs), Butler (538 runs) all had campaigns of more than 500 runs. Apart from these three, others had no significant contribution. Sherfane Rutherford was the fourth leading run-scorer with only 291 runs at an average of 32.33 in 11 innings. However, he was also traded by the franchise to Mumbai Indians, and will not feature for GT in 2026.
GT's final team for IPL 2026: Shubman Gill (captain), Sai Sudarshan, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Arshad Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav, Glenn Phillips, Jason Holder, Ashok Sharma, Luke Wood, Prithvi Raj. Yera, Tom Banton
Get every cricket update! Follow us,
Leave a Reply