Ahmedabad, March 26 (IANS) Gujarat Titans (GT) captain Shubman Gill said his side’s focus in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season will be on consistently posting big totals, as the 2022 champions look to clinch another title when the ten-team competition begins on March 28.

“At the end of the day, you have to score more runs than the other team. Whether it’s by four runs or 150–200 runs, the goal is to win. We are not chasing the glory of scoring 300–350 in a single match.

“We want to be a team that consistently scores big runs and achieves the par target for that wicket. We want to win matches in different conditions. We don’t want to be a team that performs only on good wickets,” said Gill in a pre-season press conference on Thursday.

GT will begin their IPL 2026 campaign against last year’s runners-up, Punjab Kings, in Mullanpur on March 31. Head coach Ashish Nehra backed his captain’s approach. “Like the captain just mentioned, we want to be a team that can win in any condition, in any situation, home or away,” he said.

Since their debut in 2022, GT have reached the playoffs in three out of four seasons, winning the title in their inaugural campaign and being runners-up in 2023. Nehra also defended the criticism towards GT’s middle order due to over-reliance on the top three of Gill, Sai Sudharsan, and Jos Buttler to get big runs.

“First things first, as a coach, I don’t feel the middle order was collapsing. Yes, the top three scored heavily and often batted through 17-18 overs, which is one of the main reasons the team was in such a strong position after 13-14 games.

“It was a disappointing end to the tournament, no doubt, but when your top three are scoring that many runs, the middle order naturally faces very few deliveries, and that’s not an easy role. There may have been one or two occasions in 14 games when Nos. 5 or 6 could have finished the match and didn’t, but that’s part of the game.

“Whether it was Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, or Sherfane Rutherford, they did their job, and that’s why we were where we were. It’s always easy to talk about finishers, but it’s not simple when someone walks in at the 18th over needing 35 off two, especially if Jasprit Bumrah or Jofra Archer is bowling,” concluded Nehra.

–IANS

nr/bsk/