Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 champions Gujarat Titans (GT) have been eliminated from IPL 2024 and this came after rain played spoilsport in their match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on 13th May 2024.
Gujarat were the runners-up in IPL 2023 and had narrowly missed out on their 2nd IPL title after a loss to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the finals. A new captain in the form of Shubman Gill couldn’t make the side continue their impeccable form in the IPL.
There are several reasons that can be attributed to the fact that Gujarat Titans couldn’t play their best brand of cricket in this year’s IPL.
In this article, we take a look at 3 reasons why Gujarat Titans have been eliminated from IPL 2024:
1. Leadership overhaul
There was a massive leadership overhaul in the Gujarat Titans side and it didn’t work according to their plans. Hardik Pandya, who was the poster boy of Gujarat and the astute leader who took them to 2 finals in their first 2 seasons, was a big miss.
Shubman Gill was good with his captaincy but the team didn’t deliver the goods under him like they did under Hardik Pandya. Captaincy change was a big pill to swallow for a lot of Gujarat players and that is our reason number 1.
2. Absence of Mohammad Shami
With 28 wickets under his belt, Mohammad Shami was the Purple Cap holder of IPL 2023. He was the bowling mainstay of Gujarat Titans and his injury this time forced him to get ruled out of IPL 2024.
Shami was a big void to follow and the likes of Spencer Johnson, Mohit Sharma and Umesh Yadav failed to fill up the void. Mohit Sharma is the leading wicket-taker of Gujarat with just 13 wickets in his kitty in this season.
3. Opening combination didn’t work
The opening combination of Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha didn’t work as the latter was woefully out of form. Saha managed to muster only 136 runs in 9 games and failed to give the solid starts which he was giving to the Titans in the previous 2 seasons.
Shubman looked in good touch and also has a hundred in IPL 2024 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) but he didn’t look at his imperious best like he was in IPL 2023 when he had bagged the Orange Cap for scoring 890 runs at an outstanding average of 59.33.