Gujarat Titans (GT) are a top-heavy side when it comes to their batting, that has always been known. What a big-scoring top order often does is that it doesn’t allow the middle order to do much. And then, when the middle order is under pressure to deliver, they appear undercooked. So far in IPL 2026, GT haven’t had major contributions from their batters from Nos. 4 to 7.
That middle order has the fewest runs (288) of all teams this season, and the second-lowest average (20.57). It also has just the one half-century between them, the joint-lowest. But that middle order has also faced the second-fewest balls all season, 214, only higher than Punjab Kings (202).
All those numbers mean that since the start of IPL 2025, while GT’s top three has by far the most runs and the highest average among the ten IPL teams, their middle order sits right at the bottom in both metrics. They have also faced the fewest balls over this period.
At least one of Shubman Gill, B Sai Sudharsan and Jos Buttler scored a half-century when GT registered three successive wins this season after starting with back-to-back defeats. And on the day none of Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Buttler performed, GT collapsed. In their previous game, against Mumbai Indians, they found themselves at 40 for 3 – it was the first time since the start of IPL 2025 that they had lost their top three inside the powerplay – before folding for 100 in pursuit of 200.
After the defeat against MI, GT’s batting coach Matthew Hayden said their middle order had been “exposed”. Speaking on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show after that game, Faf du Plessis said he didn’t see anyone in the GT middle order who could rescue the side from that position.
“Current form, yeah. I’m not sure anyone’s getting a hundred,” du Plessis had said. “But if you put that into other teams or out through the IPL, you could name a guy. A guy’s coming in and he’s got the potential to do it. He’s got form or whatever he’s got, he’s got the shots. That middle order right now, I’m not sure.”
For the record, in that middle order, while Washington Sundar, not a specialist batter, has done all right in scoring 137 runs at a strike rate of 147.31 so far, the big three have been below par: Rahul Tewatia has 49 runs at 116.66, Shahrukh Khan has 35 at 140.00, and Glenn Phillips has 67 at 124.07.
Contrast that to the middle order of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), GT’s next opponents, whom they face on Friday. This season, Rajat Patidar has been in prime form, and bashing sixes for fun. Tim David is consistently sending balls out of the ground. Only Jitesh Sharma has been lacking in runs, but Patidar and David being on song have more than made up for Jitesh’s lack of impact.
Unlike GT’s middle order, RCB’s middle order has been the perfect mix of aggression and output. They are the fastest-scoring, and have the second-best average this season.
GT play RCB at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the ball flies off the bat and only has to cover a short distance to the boundary. Despite that, RCB’s left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya has five wickets there at an average of 24.80, and would be relishing his chance to bowl at that GT middle order, which averages 20 against spin this season.
It would appear that Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Buttler have to keep their side of the bargain for GT to have the kind of total they are happy with. The good things for them is that it does come off often, and when it does, they can be hard to beat.
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