Follow UsGujarat Titans (GT) have had a campaign to forget. After winning the Indian Premier League (IPL) title in 2022 and finishing runners-up the following season, they are out of contention for a place in the playoffs in 2024. Shubman Gill led the franchise for the first time ever, taking over from Hardik Pandya, who was in charge of the team in the last two seasons.
Gill has not been at his best this season, yet he has managed to hit 426 runs at a strike rate of 147.40, but he has not been as consistent as he could have been. Has captaincy affected that? The batter certainly does not think so.
“When you come as a player, you are more focused on your growth as a batter, player and fielder. But, when you are captaining, you should know how to get the best out of your players,” Gill said at the press conference ahead of their final game of the season against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Hyderabad.
“Because not all 15 or 25 of our players are going to be with the same mindset. There are some players who are playing in the IPL for the first time. And, then there are experienced players like Kane Williamson or a David Miller or a Matthew Wade who know how to go about their things. It’s important to communicate with them."
“It was important for me to tell them what their role is and how I can get the best out of them. And, that is the challenge. I don’t think captaincy affected my batting. If I am thinking about those things while I am batting, then I won’t be able to get the best out of myself as a batter."
GT have managed to win just one of their last five matches, but Gill believes that his team can draw inspiration from their impressive performance against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), which they won comfortably by 35 runs.
“The challenge would be to be able to replicate the performance in our last match against Chennai Super Kings. Can we come up with the same intensity that we did in the last match? Can we come up again? Knowing that we won’t be able to qualify. Having that information and to be able to come up in this match and still do our best would be the challenge,” Gill said.
“I am as motivated as one can be. Irrespective of what the position is, I always play to win. That’s the mindset and the intensity at which I go about my things. I can say that you would see all of our players playing at that intensity."
Summing up the season, Gill said, “We have been a bit up and down in the season. It’s important in a big season like this to be balanced as a team and as a performing unit, which I think we were not able to do this season.”
GT might be out of IPL 2024, but they can take the first step in ruining SRH's chances of progressing to the playoffs with a win on May 16 (Thursday).
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