IPL 2024 Team Previews – Gujarat Titans – How Do You Solve A Problem Like Pandya?

The 2024 IPL is just weeks away, which means it is time for The Cricket Podcast to preview each of the teams ahead of the premier T20 competition. In this episode we review the Gujarat Titans.

The Titans have lost Hardik Pandya to MI and face a job replacing him. How will the finalists of the last two years cope? Will Rashid Khan’s quality shine through, or will Hardik’s loss prove too much to overcome?

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#IPL2024 #GT

You’re listening to the cricket Podcast hello everyone and welcome back to the cricet podcast for our IPL 2024 team preview of the garat Titans we’ve done three teams we’re on our fourth team we’re nearly at halfway we’re nearly at the end of part one if you’re an audio listener remember as I’ve said

At the beginning of each of these team previews to like And subscribe and maybe head over to Twitter as well at the cricket pod we 37 shy of 5,000 followers there which would be good it would be good to get to 5K before the IPL then would’ be a real big

Dog probably probably what we need to do is just tweet a couple of photos of coy training be like Co a completely unrelated news item so so inspiring look at his work ethic and all of a sudden we’ve got thousands yeah Co turns up to trading uh right good at

Titans they are well they’ve had a captaincy change and we talked about Mumbai and they new captain because he used to be the old good Captain they they now will be led by sh Mill who had a pretty good season last year but the coach stays the same ashisha um still in

Charge there it’s kind of I mean at some point we’re gonna have to talk about hardic P being missing um maybe not right away but I I want to go on record yet again uh and say that they’ve torpedoed themselves with that decision um kit review from what I can see it’s

Light mumbai’s kit uh except a lot darker and that’s it that’s all I’ve got there is that why hardic left doesn’t like Navy I think I wondered whether goodat were trying to design a kit that looked like M’s kit to trick hardic into staying but I know got the colors

Slightly off um they do look very similar uh strength wise let’s let’s start with some strength as we have with all the the previews um and with with with goodat it’s a little bit difficult to analyze what it will be because I think the fact that hardic doesn’t play

For them anymore and the fact that muhami shami is ruled out for the entire IPL probably change where the obvious strengths of this team are quite significantly um so last year they were extremely good in the power play with the ball thanks to Mam shami and and

They were pretty good at the death thanks in part to muhamad shami and they were very good at the death when it came to batting now that wasn’t really anything to do with hardic paner but hard what hardic paner was able to do along with shman Gill was set up some

Pretty decent foundations for people to go ballistic now we don’t know whether they’ll be able to replace those foundations so I’m not sure I can say that they’ll be able to do the same again but if you do look at that middle order and we’ll focus on this because I

Think this is the the strength that really leaps off the page straight away it is it is pretty good um and I I think that’s that’s one strength um the other two obvious strengths and people probably thought I would lead with these are that they have Rashid Khan uh and

They have and VJ Shanker and VJ shanka yes yeah no and shman Gill um so they have you know potentially the potentially the best bowler in the tournament I mean like Boomer and Rashid Khan probably quite close uh when you when you look at them side by side and

They have the guy who was you know Unstoppable last year in shman G that repeat that probably unlikely he’ll be as good but if he’s you know somewhat as good it would be it’s it’s a it’s a major major strength and the other strength that I’d point to is the and

This is a little bit more esoteric and I I because I I did spend a lot of time on goodat we actually had to delay the whole podcast because I was doing goodat Titans um research I think this is a team that have a whole load of above

Average players now they they might not be like huge names and they might not be like absolute Mega stars and some of them might actually be quite boring players but I think almost all of the players that they could conceivably get in in an 11 and even guys who probably

Won’t be in the 11 so Robin mins abin manahar abinav manahar Sai Kisha Matt Wade Omar zai the the Afghan guy they picked up all of those guys could probably come in and actually do an above average job for the role that they were doing so they’re they’re kind of

The anti by in a way they’ve spread their talent pretty thin with like a Rashid Khan and shman Gill pair of cherries on the top of the the goodat cake so that that’s that’s kind of what I was thinking um with them now weaknesses wise um I I I think they’re going to

Lose a lot with muhamad shami in particular being out after he took 24 wickets for them last year um he was absolutely awesome and was probably worth like two players um when when it came to his performance particularly because he was he was so good in the

Power play but not you know in in a sort slightly dissimilar fashion to the rest of his career was actually really really good at the death as well and that kind of duel threat um caus them a lot of problems cause other teams rather a lot of problems um

Other other couple of weaknesses that you might want to point to here rman Sahar is 107 years old and probably will still be opening the batting for them in the kind of power play exploiter role that it doesn’t appear he’s necessarily capable of pulling off anymore and if

You’re looking at one specific area where their their strength in depth is a little bit weaker um batting probably is it and particularly overseas batting where Kane Williamson and Matt Wade who I don’t think will start but but might be required if they need to make a

Change later in the tournament so I don’t game isn’t he he’s he’s staying to play in The sheeld Shield final so yeah there you go you got one thing there um the other thing the other weakness and this is maybe a harsh weakness is that you know like Mohit

Sharma was really really good last year and I’m not sure that he’ll be that’s good yeah like it would be quite a bolt from the blue um carwise I’ve gone for a Volkswagen Polo pretty depend yeah yeah pretty depend or a decent Car Max as you’ll be able to

Testify however they’re not as good as a golf and this team it used to be a VW Golf and now it’s been downgraded to a VW polo I would say um quite a difficult one to analyze Ross I would say and I I I’ve I’ve tried to pull out the key themes there

Decent decent but flat team profile in terms of talent yeah well they they’ve lost two of their best five players right that’s the that’s the Crux of any team is going to be worse off for that um and yeah is sharot khah going to be able to replace the runs that hardic

Pandia scored for them and play that role no don’t think is based on all the evidence that is there um and like who is who is ultimately going to pick up what kind of um Shamy so um max I know you’ve seen a little bit of Spencer

Johnson down in down down at uh the oval which in your oval invincibles just just little of has been yeah a decent player for them but again I think they might need to go with a slightly different tact um I think now they’ve got a different set of cards

They’re going to have to change what they were good at I I think actually they should be looking to play Someone Like pish or more I think they need more of a spin heavy team and rely on that strength rather than actually um try to address the weakness that they now have

In Shamy so I’m expecting to see a shift in their game strategy in order to give them the best chance of winning um but it’s going to be pretty dogged at times but they’ve got the explosiveness of someone like David Willer and um TOA so you can never truly write them off but

The the surely at some point the clutch that is contct Titans kind of falls out so um it’s gonna be tough for them uh Max I know what do you think like um I did struggle to I I struggle to place how good this team are because it’s

Quite they’re a little bit conceptual Russ they’ve lost two of their best five players how’s a team going to play even if you think the replacement players are actually quite good how how does that actually look on the field and with a new captain that’s the question yeah I

Mean I agree with with what uh Ross is is saying in general about having to think about a new way of of playing because it’s um yeah if you lose two key parts of what made you successful you have to think about um how you react to

That and how you get around it uh good good at uh a a silly though cuz like we we made the joke in the past don’t like you look at the side and you think like yeah they’re fine they’re serviceable how many games do you want do you think

They’re going to win this year you put a number on it and then you double it because for some reason they just win games from ridiculous positions whether it’s tatti or Rashi KH or whatever like helicoptering 60 of 20 I it just it just happens whether that still happens with

Without Shamy and pandia is questionable but they’re just I don’t know there’s just something about them I actually wouldn’t be surprised if we see Robin mins playing I reckon rman Saha will start I reckon he’ll play three games be absolutely turgid and they’ll bring him in and and do

Something else maybe open with um codar and mix things up maybe even Kane Williamson open the’s good player he’s a good player something something like that I can I can definitely see a change there because I think rder man Saha possibly had the worst strike rate of

Anyone who faced um any number of balls in the uh power play last year and when you’re losing something from middle order like hardic panger that’s not a great way to start your game of cricket so I’d be interested to see whether whether that happens and I think that

Should happen I I I I am surprised he didn’t play Psy Shore at all last year because no not at all his economy is off the charts um as as a bowler and again like without Muhammad shami and the wickets that that brings maybe they need

To think a bit more about pressure and drying up and other ways of taking wickets that that b yeah they’re they’re a real interesting one I think I think that’s that part I think they are one of those teams who’s going to look to say look our our seeding is probably

175 right but we’re going to try and squeeze kind of what they’ve got there’s going to be other teams that will just Blitz through them but this team have got a probably a plan of bow first try to strangle as much as possible and then Unleash the Beast in the middle order

Because kind having Miller toat and rashed Khan is kind of that 567 or six S8 is going to be very very good I think for them still so there there’s definitely ways for these guys to win cricket games um and someone um shav maybe does step up again he had that

Purple Patch when he played for KKR and maybe does maybe can fill a bit of a bit of a hole I think they will play quite a lot of different Els but I’m going to give you one anyway so I I I think the strength and depth being something that

Really is a strength for them means that they can be adaptive umad for example Ross isn’t in my 11 here but there are certainly grounds where I think that UMES yadev would be a reasonably good selection um sh I think will start something like this shman Gill rman

Sahar ceron VJ Shankar he’s in uh David Miller sharck Khan Rahal Tatia Rashid Khan Spencer Johnson Mohit sha and N armid I was wondering whether they might use I I think that lineup um basically uses an overseas impact player situation with Josh little and Dom asai and

Williamson maybe as a as somebody that could come in but Max I’m glad you mentioned mentioned Robin mins again as well um I think there’s so if you don’t know who he is he’s a wicket keeper who Ms Don is a big fan of so obviously he’s

Got the more the Magic Touch I’m not sure he’s played a proper cricket match I mean obviously he has but nothing good enough to get onto ESPN and Crick info so this is like a a real the real um Cricket hit the selection by you’re at

The 3.2 CW um he’s 21 he’ll bat in the middle order if he plays and if that happens they can kind of reformulate their team so they could bin off rman Sahar move Sedar up and then maybe e extend that kind of bomb squad in their middle order even further through the

Addition of mins now there’s a little bit of a spanner in the works there because he was in a motorbike accident accident last week and has been in hospital so um yeah apparently he’s fine it’s just like a br and stuff like that but like you don’t know you know people

Don’t people don’t necessarily bounce B from having their super bike written off for the for the tournament in six days time like it’s um B pant’s coming back yeah so I like I think they definitely play Kan Williamson I think they can’t help themselves I think I

Think they definitely play him I think the whole thing here is can we B out the 20 20 overs I think that their game plan goes from being quite exciting to being quite tured but they already have Gil and Saron so there’s no reason to have Williamson there and they have VJ

Shankar as well like there’s no Williamson is adding nothing on any of those players like they started him last year and he only didn’t play because he wrecked his ankle on a boundary I I know that you’re both saying facts but I’m saying say no

No I know I know they did do this but I’m saying as well that Kane Williamson is like heroically bad at T20 cricket his his strike rate in major T20 comps in the last three years is 102.8 how many games are they gonna play this year in total if they got to the

Final how many games you play 15 or 16 16 16 or 17 actually because you here’s here’s a good go over or under nine appearances for Kane Williams I’m I’m over I’m definitely over okay nine exactly that would be a huge a huge downgrade to to be honest

And if they do that I I don’t think that they can realistically threaten the playoffs um home venue is the Ameda Ameda Bad Boys Dome also known as the ma the Modi Dome um it’s quite hard to predict what will happen there because they seem to be able to produce like

Every different type of pitch so maybe maybe they will go heavy on the spin I mean like sa isure as well quite absent from this discussion so far but everyone says that he is and all of the numbers make him look like one of the best spin prospects who is Indian um like

Certainly better than some of the players that will be playing for other teams but he’s kind of he’s kind of blocked by Rashi Khan and maybe also blocked by n armed to be honest um so we we we don’t know whether whether we’ll see him but maybe they will maybe

They’ll go spin heavy play three Spinners including py isure use him as the impact sub and we’ll see some some sort of low turning pitches and Kane Williamson getting 50s they’ve got players to do it they’ve got players for that they’ve got got players especially they’re they’re gonna

2004 Greece the IPL they could I mean like look that that that is a is a possibility or or or they won’t and Hope hope they don’t um predictions wise I you’ll probably be able to tell from what I’ve said about them so far I don’t

Really know I’ve got them in the playoff chasing pack but I kind of wouldn’t be surprised if they were much better than that and actually really good and I equally wouldn’t be super like blown off my chair if they did play in a team and were rubbish um

Yeah like we’ve seen Kane son and Rashid Khan team up for some pretty tragic Cricket another franchise in the past haven’t we so it’s it’s not beyond the Realms I like how they’ve navigated that situation Rashid KH you’re not getting the captaincy Williamson you’re not getting

It Gil you’re having it yeah um that’s it from me should we take a break and come back with the last last last preview of this series or this episode lock now super Giants we will of course we should say this as well we will of

Course be back with RCB and CSK and the three other teams that aren’t as attractive as them when it comes to hooking in listeners but do include KKR who sometimes are so that’s coming up uh make sure you like And subscribe to the cricket podcast so that you don’t miss

Out on all of that action uh there’ll be individual videos on YouTube or in one big block if you listen on Spotify or apple break time