Gujarat Titans’ bowling first tactic rewarded with IPL title
In the batting-heavy T20 format, the tactic of skipper Hardik Pandya and coach Ashish Nehra to focus on genuine bowlers took the team all the way.
A look at the Gujarat Titans’ team sheet for Sunday’s final against Rajasthan Royals showed they had only six batters. Two were ‘keepers, Wriddhiman Saha and Matthew Wade, and one was an all-rounder—Hardik Pandya. That meant they had two pure batters in the top six—Shubman Gill and David Miller. Rahul Tewatia at No. 6 bowls spin and was more of an all-rounder.
Compare that with Chennai Super Kings of 2021. They had four pure batters – Faf du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu and Robin Uthappa, besides Moeen Ali, MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur, who batted at No. 9.
Making their debut, Titans planned differently from others. While most T20 teams look for batting depth, Titans won the title having built their team around specialist bowlers. They had seven bowling options—five pure bowlers in Rashid Khan, R Sai Kishore, Lockie Ferguson, Yash Dayal and Mohammed Shami besides all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Tewatia.
In no match did their bowling might stand out as it did in Sunday’s final. Titans simply blew away the Rajasthan Royals batting line-up. Throughout the innings, the pressure from both ends was relentless. Against Rashid Khan anyway the tactic is to play out his overs. That gives the batting side only 16 overs but if it then has to face Hardik in the kind of form he was in on Sunday effectively takes away eight overs; Lockie Ferguson is there for the shock treatment—he bowled the fastest delivery (157.3 kph) of the tournament and consistently clocked 150kph. Then comes Mohammed Shami, who sets the tone with the new ball.
Titans lost the toss, but it didn't matter. Their bowlers set up the game, restricting RR to 130. Hardik explained the thinking behind the team combination: “Me and Ashu pa (Ashish Nehra) are agreed in wanting to play five proper bowlers who can win you matches all day. Specifically, both of us lean to the bowling side more because I’ve always believed that even though a lot of people say that T20 is a batter’s game, hamesha bowlers match jitate hain (always bowlers win you matches). If batters don’t get a par score then if you have a gun bowling, which we had, then you can pull things back. In matches where teams have conceded 190 runs, we made sure we conceded 10 runs less. In a broader sense, those 10 runs play a significant role because you end up winning or losing.
“Me and Ashu paa made sure we will make a strong and experienced bowling unit because if a situation arises where batters can’t score, you can still pull things back. That helped a lot.”
Rashid Khan (4-0-18-0) and Pandya (4-0-17-3) were the standout performers, and received solid support from Shami (4-0-33-1), Yash Dayal (3-0-18-1), Lockie Ferguson 3-0-22-0, and Sai Kishore (2-0-22-2).
Pandya was the star of the final, but throughout the tournament the bowling was spearheaded by Rashid and Shami with Ferguson, Dayal and Alzarri Joseph providing support. Rashid spread panic even without taking many wickets. No batting line-up dared to attack him. In the Qualifier 1 against Royals too, he made the difference with a spell of 4-0-15-0.
“We adjusted very quickly to the wicket. We knew it was the kind of wicket where if they scored 150-plus, it would be hard but we have to bowl in the right areas. That’s what happened. Everyone took responsibility, the middle-overs were important and we bowled really well,” said the Afghanistan leg-spinner, who took 19 wickets at an average of 22.15.
Shami was incisive with the new ball bowling Test match lengths. Ferguson rattled the batters with express pace.
GT mentor and batting coach Gary Kirsten said the focus was to have bowling depth while building the team around a versatile set of players. “You are looking for balance, depth at the auction but the most important thing is you need versatile guys. We had a strong bowling attack throughout; towards the end, we even went with an extra bowler and a batter light. T20 is very tactical,” said Kirsten, who guided India to the 2011 World Cup.
The tone for the tournament was also set by Titans bowlers. Shami appropriately had struck first ball in the team’s first game when he got Lucknow Super Giants skipper KL Rahul to nick a peach of a delivery, giving Titans an incredible start. Titans won after Shami’s opening burst of three wickets.
Shami, who gave Titans the edge by being at his lethal best with the new ball, aggregated 20 wickets at 24.40. He said: “It was the first ball, so I wanted to bowl well but I wasn’t thinking much. I was just trying to bowl a good line and length.”
Behind the scenes, former India left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra was the master strategist. “I loved working with Ashish, he is tactically very good. It’s incredible winning in your first season in front of 100,000 people,” said Kirsten.