New Delhi, May 31 (IANS) Former Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Tom Moody reckons Gujarat Titans’ (GT) needs a quality Indian middle-order batter to fill a void in their side which came to the fore after suffering a 20-run defeat to Mumbai Indians’ (MI) in the IPL 2025 Eliminator.

GT’s stellar IPL 2025 campaign had been led by top-three batters in captain Shubman Gill, B Sai Sudharsan and Jos Buttler, which meant their middle order didn’t get much batting in the league matches.

In the chase of 229 in New Chandigarh, after the fall of Washington Sundar and Sudharsan, GT’s middle order batters – Sherfane Rutherford, Rahul Tewatia and M Shahrukh Khan – couldn’t maintain the tempo in the face of a relentless MI bowling line-up, as the IPL 2022 winners eventually bowed out of the competition.

“I sort of bag Rutherford with Tewatia. I think they both have similar roles. Slightly different players – one is more of a six-hitter than the other. But between them they faced 26 balls today, and hit one six. That, to me, just tells it all.”

“They are batting right at the back end of the innings, where the currency is boundaries. It’s either fours or sixes, it’s not ones and twos. Currency is boundaries, and that’s what they train for. And that was their moment to at least add three to that one, and that may have been the difference.”

“With regards to their batting, I suppose Washington stepped up here for that particular role, but they are missing a quality Indian top-order/middle-order player that can fill that void. If they can find that, it will certainly make a big difference to the balance of their side,” said Moody on ESPNcricinfo.

Varun Aaron, the former India fast-bowler who was in the GT set-up when they won the IPL 2022 title in their debut season in the tournament, believes the side didn’t have a batter in the middle-order who could replicate what David Miller did for them in that edition of the competition.

“Tewatia has always been that guy who’s come in in the last two, max three, overs and played a blinder. At a very crunch time, yes, but he’s never been one of those guys… for example, David Miller was the guy, he was the Rutherford.”

“He would come in with six-seven overs to spare, build his innings nicely, and when he was set, he wasn’t missing a slot ball. There was no chance David Miller was going to miss a slot ball. He was that guy that year, and that’s why GT won that final.”

“Because there were quite a few matches where the top order had set it up nicely for Miller; Miller would take it deep and finish it. This year, Rutherford has not been able to do that on more than two or three occasions,” he concluded.

–IANS

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