Gujarat TitansDirector of Cricket Vikram Solanki credited the team for their campaign in the 2026 Indian Premier League despite losing by five wickets in the final against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
“I would like to start by congratulating RCB. They have had a fantastic campaign,” Solanki said. Speaking at the post-match press conference, Solanki said, “They topped the table in the league stage and then beat us twice, so we have to accept that. As far as our campaign is concerned, we are extremely proud as a group of what we have achieved. There is no doubt that we would have liked to go a step further, but there are many other teams who would have happily taken our place,” Solanki said while speaking at the post-match press conference, as reported by ESPNcricinfo.
The Titans played three games in five days, including a Qualifier 1 defeat to the same opponent, and their travel to Ahmedabad was delayed due to a storm. Solanki said fatigue should not be used as an excuse for their defeat and admitted that they had lost in the summit clash.
“The number of games in a short period of time is challenging,” he said. “Of course it is at the end of a campaign, but I wouldn't dwell on that at all. The fact is that RCB have beaten us today, and we have to be strong enough to hold our heads high and be proud of the campaign we have had, yet also be gracious enough to congratulate RCB. So, I don't want to take away from the fact that RCB have won by just saying, 'Oh, we have played so many games in such a short period of time and we are tired. Happened'. That's not really what we're about,” he said.
Solanki on Nishant Sindhu's promotion to No. 3 – 'A little decision time'
A crucial moment in the game came when both the opening batsmen, Shubman Gill And Sai Sudarshan was out in the powerplay. Gill was out first on the ball of Josh Hazlewood. That move saw all-rounder Nishant Sindhu promoted to No. 3 ahead of Jos Buttler. Solanki said that it was the decision of coach Ashish Nehra, who often takes such decisions. However, this move yielded no results as Sindhu could only score 20 runs in 18 balls.
“It was a bit like a decision,” he said. “Ashish [Nehra, the head coach] At that time a call was made to send him to number 3. We didn't really discuss it, but if the captain is around, Ashish, together with the captain, calls again and again,'' he said.
When Solanki was asked about the team's over-dependence on their opening pair, he expressed his irritation. Both Gill and Sudarshan have scored over 700 runs in the 2026 season and have made the biggest contributions for the Titans with the bat.
“The number of times I've had to answer that question…quite seriously, we've just played a final. This notion [over-reliance on] Top two or top three… we have played the final. I think you should accept the fact that we have run a proper campaign, and the details of it are there for everyone to see – the number of runs scored and so on,'' he said.
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