New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS) Gujarat Titans’ assistant coach Parthiv Patel detailed the reasoning and approach behind the IPL 2026 retention strategy, also sharing insights from discussions with captain Shubman Gill and the coaching team, saying that the skipper is ‘very assertive about his thinking,’ and added that the trait helps in building the squad.

GT retained their core and released Dasun Shanaka, Mahipal Lomror, Karim Janat, Gerald Coetzee, and Kulwant Khejroliya from their squad, while trading Sherfane Rutherford to the Mumbai Indians.

Speaking of the team’s strategy behind taking the calls, Parthiv, while speaking on JioStar’s IPL 2026 ‘Retention Special’ show, said, “The kind of squad we had built, it is very important for us to make sure that we keep that continuity going. And that’s exactly what we tried to do. I thought last year in the auction we had built a solid squad. And unfortunately, we could not go all the way. I think that is the reason why we have not let go of a lot of players.”

“Yes, but you still want to keep space for a few young players to come in or for few new comers to come in. And that is the reason why we’ve let go of Sherfane Rutherford, Gerald Coetzee, who again has not played too much of cricket after the IPL finished. The rise of Washington Sundar in the last year, I think that is something which we also thought about it and that is the reason why we’ve let go of Sherfane Rutherford,” he added.

Speaking about the conversations between him and skipper Gill, the former India cricketer added, “Yes obviously retaining players or letting go of players is not an overnight process. You try and see a lot of combination and permutations, and then come to a conclusion. Obviously, we’ve seen Shubman Gill together very closely. I was fortunate enough to see his progress as a captain, the way he led side in England, the way he led this experienced side in one-day cricket also. So, that is something obviously we did take that in account. And I’ve had quite a few chats with Shubman.

He is someone who’s very assertive about his thinking, and that is what actually helps us to build that squad. And it’s great to see that how he’s leading the team in the international cricket. And hopefully, we can try and build on what we’ve done so far.”

Parthiv believes that the 2022 champions have an excellent and settled squad, as he said, “We’ve let go of few young players also, because we have quite a few young players in the side. I think we have a very solid and settled squad. That is the reason why we’ve not let go of a lot of players.”

The team will look to strengthening their overseas contingent when the management heads to the IPL 2026 auction next month. Having released many of their overseas players, GT will need to revamp that section to strategise accordingly in their hunt for a second title.

“That’s definitely there in mind. If you look at all the young players, see, Nishant Sindhu has been very regular in India A set-up, Gurnoor Brar is someone who’s regular in set-up, Kumar Kushagra is in great form in Ranji Trophy, and so is Anuj Rawat. So, we have a lot of Indian options and that is the reason why we could actually play with only two overseas players. And we have Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan.

“These are all established names in terms of playing IPL. And that’s something which definitely have taken in account. We’ve let go of three international players and I was just going through the retention list of other players. We’ll have to go all scouting really well. We’ll have to try and see once the last list comes out,” Pathiv concluded.

–IANS

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