Titans in last-chance saloon vs injury-ravaged CSK

PreviewA loss on Friday will end GT’s tournament, while CSK will be looking to boost their hopes of a playoff spot

Match details
Gujarat Titans (10th; W4, L7) vs Chennai Super Kings (4th; W6, L5)

Ahmedabad, 7.30pm IST (2pm GMT)

Big picture

Chennai Super Kings right now are Gujarat Titans from the start of the season. They have pretty much lost their entire pace attack, which has been crucial to their challenge for a place in the playoffs. Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman and to a lesser extent Deepak Chahar had done such a good job that the CSK quicks are the ones with the best economy rate in the middle overs (8) and the second-best at the death (10.43) in IPL 2024.

GT had a bowler that they relied on just as heavily. Mohammed Shami. But he’s been out, recovering from ankle injury, and then surgery. In his absence, the team has looked at various options. Azmatullah Omarzai. Spencer Johnson. Josh Little. But nothing has worked. Fast bowlers are a point of difference, especially those with slingy actions or supreme new-ball skills or hard-to-pick variations. And when they go missing, it can be difficult to cope.

GT haven’t really been able to. A loss on Friday will end their tournament. CSK have to win. They are better placed to make a run at the playoffs and the final, which happens to be taking place at the very ground where someone said he wanted to end his career. Wouldn’t that be poetic?

Form guide

Gujarat Titans LLLWL (last five completed games, most recent first)

Chennai Super Kings WLWLL

Previous meeting

Back in March – seems ages ago, doesn’t it? – the re-match of the 2023 final fell CSK’s way with Shivam Dube hitting a whirlwind half-century and their fast bowlers refusing to let GT find a hero from out of nowhere like they used to do. 206 for 6 comfortably beat 143 for 8.

Team news and Impact Player strategy

Gujarat Titans

GT have tried 22 players, joint-most for the season, without really settling into a winning combination. Their success seems to depend heavily on Gill scoring runs at the top and Miller being there to finish. Their impact player strategy is likely to be a straight swap between Sai Sudharsan and Sai Kishore or Sandeep Warrier

Likely XII: 1 Shubman Gill (capt), 2 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3 B Sai Sudharsan, 4 M Shahrukh Khan, 5 David Miller, 6 Vijay Shankar, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Mohit Sharma, 10 Noor Ahmad, 11 Josh Little/Azmatullah Omarzai, 12 R Sai Kishore/Sandeep Warrier

Chennai Super Kings

CSK have repeatedly said they aren’t concerned with Ajinkya Rahane’s form, trusting in the fact that experienced players know how to get out of ruts. He has been part of their impact player strategy as well and will probably swap in and out for Simarjeet Singh.

Likely XII: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 2 Ajinkya Rahane, 3 Daryl Mitchell, 4 Shivam Dube, 5 Moeen Ali, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 MS Dhoni (wk), 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Tushar Deshpande, 11 Richard Gleeson, 12 Simarjeet Singh

In the spotlight

Rashid Khan’s overall IPL economy was around 6.3 runs per over until IPL 2022. Since last year though, he has been going at 8.2 runs per over. Some of this has to do with his home base shifting, some is the result of teams being more open to take risks against him thanks to the impact player rule. He’s also had to bowl in the powerplay a lot more than he’s used to. And he came into this season fresh off of back surgery. Even the greats falter when the odds are stacked that high but you know what else the greats do? They recover and they hit back.

Simarjeet Singh has quickened up. This is based on only three overs’ worth of evidence in a game where the opposition was already four down when he came on to bowl but still he left a very clear mark – particularly on Ashutosh Sharma, whose body he pelted with a couple of well-directed short deliveries. Pace, of course, isn’t everything. Especially at CSK, who prefer their bowlers being smart as well. Still, it shows that Simarjeet has been working hard behind the scenes and is hungry to succeed.

Stats that matter

There have been lots of similarities between GT and CSK and usually that tends to come off as a compliment. But this season both teams have had a fair bit of trouble navigating their innings. GT are scoring at 7.54 in the powerplay and 8 in the middle overs, making them the slowest team in the competition. CSK aren’t far behind with a run rate of 8.54 between overs 1 to 6 and 8.35 between overs 7 to 16.
Rahane and Wriddhiman Saha, who once excelled at taking advantage of the fielding restrictions, have struggled with strike rates of 123 and 118 this year.
Even Shubman Gill is suffering. From averaging 51 and striking at 152 in the first six games, his numbers have dropped to 13.4 and 102 in the next five.
Dube needs one more six to raise a hundred in the IPL.Pitch and conditions

When in Ahmedabad, you chase, because conditions get better for batting as the evening wears on and dew sets in. Thirteen of the last 21 IPL games there have been won by the team batting second and that puts a fair bit of pressure on Ruturaj Gaikwad to change his luck with the toss. The average first-innings total in this period is 188.

Quotes

“He has enjoyed captaincy. It is something that takes time to really master. He has enjoyed it this season. He is a world-class player. I have no doubt that in the next three games, he is going to put in one or two really good performances, no doubt.”
Gujarat Titans batting coach Gary Kirsten does not feel captaincy has affected Shubman Gill’s batting

Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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Indian Premier League

TEAMMWLPTNRRKKR1183161.453RR1183160.476SRH1275140.406CSK1165120.700DC126612-0.316LSG126612-0.769RCB1257100.217MI12488-0.212PBKS12488-0.423GT11478-1.320

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