Follow UsAt INR 15.75 crore, Jos Buttler was Gujarat Titans’ most expensive signing at the IPL 2025 mega auction. GT went all-out for the then England skipper at the auction, and got their wish, as they sealed the signing of one of IPL’s greatest ever batters.
But with both Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan already present in the starting XI, it is not clear as to where Buttler will bat for the Titans. Gill and Sudharsan opened the batting three times in IPL 2024 and amassed 328 runs together at an average of 109.33. It will hence be a bold call to disrupt the pair, even though Butler is a world-class player himself.
So will GT take the call to break the Gill-Sudharsan pair?
“We haven’t decided at which number he will bat; maybe we will get to know about it tomorrow during the match, but over the course of 8-9 years that he has played IPL, he has played at different numbers and he has performed. So, I don’t see that as a problem for us,” Gill said ahead of the Punjab Kings clash, not giving away where Buttler will bat.
“If you have someone like him (Buttler) in your team, no team would think of it as a problem. We have all seen what he has done in T20 cricket for England and in the IPL, and in the previous series, he batted at No.3, so I don’t think there is any problem with him batting at different numbers,” he added.
Interestingly, Buttler has batted 9 times in T20s since November 2024 and each of the nine knocks have come at No.3.
However, in the IPL, 47 of Buttler’s last 48 innings have come as an opener.