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Cricket News: Gujarat Titans IPL 2022 Season Preview: Can the new team make a mark? | Gujarat Titans 2022 IPL Team Preview: Looking at their auction
The Gujarat Titans were introduced as the tenth team in the most luxurious T20 league, the Indian Premier League. They picked dynamic Indian allrounder Hardik Pandya as their skipper, drafted the legendary Rashid Khan as their lead spinner, as well as the talented Shubman Gill as a key batsman prior to the mega auction.
They had a budget of 52 crores before the auction, but I feel they didn’t use this amount in the most convincing manner. They had to pick their fast bowlers, allrounders, keepers and an opener. They had some good buys in the form of Lockie Ferguson, Sai Kishore, David Miller, Mohammed Shami and Jason Roy, but they couldn’t pick renowned domestic middle-order batters and seamers.
Gujarat Titans IPL 2022 full squad
Hardik Pandya (c), Rashid Khan, Shubman Gill, Mohammed Shami, David Miller, Jason Roy, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Lockie Ferguson, Abhinav Manohar, Rahul Tewatia, Noor Ahmad, R Sai Kishore, Dominic Drakes, Vijay Shankar, Jayant Yadav, Darshan Nalkande, Yash Dayal, B Sai Sudharsan, Gurkeerat Singh, Alzarri Joseph, Varun Aaron, Pradeep Sangwan.
Gujarat Titans IPL 2022 Possible XI
Roy, Rashid and Ferguson are three certain overseas players that the Gujarat Titans should start with. As they don’t have great domestic middle-order batters, I would like them to go with David Miller as their finisher alongside Hardik. As a result, Saha should get the nod over Wade for the keeping position.
Saha can be used properly at the top, so I would like them to use Gill at number 3. Roy and Saha should be asked to capitalize on the field restrictions and Gill can deal with the spinners in an appropriate manner.
My preferred XI for the Gujarat Titans is:
Jason Roy, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Hardik Pandya, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Sai Kishore, Aaron, Mohammed Shami, Lockie Ferguson
Gujarat Titans IPL 2022 Auction Analysis: Strengths
Their primary strength in batting is their finishing department as they have two really good finishers in David Miller and Hardik Pandya. Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan can also provide some handy contributions coming lower down the order. Their spin bowling department looks very good as they have all types of bowlers in Rashid, Sai Kishore, Rahul Tewatia, Jayant Yadav, Noor Ahmad etc. whom they can use as per the opposition.
Gujarat Titans IPL 2022 Auction Analysis: Weaknesses
Their top four doesn’t seem to be the most convincing one. Jason Roy, though being an English superstar, has played only 13 IPL games. Shubman Gill hasn’t been at his best for quite some time now. Wriddhiman Saha and Matthew Wade both don’t come under the category of first-choice wk-batsman options. Vijay Shankar has had an underwhelming IPL career so far. The other domestic options like Abhinav Manohar and Sai Sudharsan are untested in the IPL. They will certainly hope that these guys give some impactful performances up the order, which will make things easier for the likes of Hardik and Miller.
Talking about their bowling department, they will struggle to find Lockie Ferguson’s partner in the death overs. Shami’s numbers in death overs haven’t been encouraging, and Aaron and Sangwan rarely play matches in the IPL.
To counter this, they have to use the four overs of Rashid wisely and if possible, they should try to keep 1-2 overs of the spin maestro for the death overs.
Written by Debashish Sarangi. Follow Debashish on Twitter today
