After discussing the auction strategy and doing a detailed team analysis of the 9 teams of the IPL, it is now time to talk about the tenth and final team in the tournament which is the Gujarat Titans. Gujarat Titans had three very good players retained before going into the auction in Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khan and Shubman Gill so they already had a strong core and they just needed to assemble the rest of the squad.
The Gujarat team have assembled a good squad albeit with a few weaknesses which they will have to sort out and considering this is their first mega auction as a collective unit , they did well in those 2 days. Now that we have looked at all 10 teams it can be said that the Gujarat Titans will be contenders for the top 4 of the IPL going forward, they just have to play well as a team.
Auction Strategy :
The Auction strategy for the Gujarat Titans waa very simple, get 8 players who will play in the starting 11 and then find backups for them going forward. So they got Jason Roy at his base price of 2 crores which was a great deal for them as now they have a great opening partnership in Shubman Gill and Jason Roy and they got a good Wicket-keeper in Matthew Wade at the very end of the auction so they have these departments solved but the issue is the rest of the batting order. In the all rounder department they already had Hardik Pandya and they got some good ones in the auction in Dominik Drakes and Rahul Tewatia but they have very less experience.
Team Analysis :
Before we do a detailed team analysis of the Gujarat Titans team, here are a few general thoughts. The batting order is good till the Top 3 but the middle order is the issue here as they don’t have capable batters all throughout and their Bowling is decent.
Strengths:
This team also has its strengths, the important one being they have two amazing opening batters in Shubman Gill and Jason Roy and they also have a good Wicket-keeper batter in Matthew Wade. They also have good all rounders in Hardik Pandya, Vijay Shankar etc and their fast bowling department is also really strong in Lockie Ferguson, Mohammad Shami so they have quite a few bases covered.
Weaknesses:
Despite having few strengths in their team, there are a few glaring weaknesses also within the Gujarat Titans team as their batting middle order is non-existent as they only have a good top 3. Hardik Pandya is not fit since a lot of years so how useful he will be to the team is not known and their spin bowling department other than Rashid Khan is so weak that if Rashid is unable to play a match then they will have no spinners.
Opportunities:
Like we discussed with the Lucknow team , this franchise also has the chance to win the IPL in its first year of playing and they have the team to do It if they play to their potential. Shubman Gill has the chance to show the Indian team management that he should be brought back into the setup and most importantly Hardik Pandya can also show that he can still bowl and be an useful all rounder once again.
Threat:
Their threats are many as well as the bowling attacks of the other teams will look to exploit their fragile middle order and not let them score a lot of runs in the full overs and they spin bowling is non existent so they will look to play Rashid out and attack the other Bowlers and score lots of runs. So the Gujarat Titans team will have to find a way to get past these threats.
