🏏IPL 2024 Gujarat Titans vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, 12th Match. 🏏

🏏IPL 2024 Gujarat Titans vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, 12th Match. 🏏

Bullets Credit:WildestDreams

Shubman Gill-led Gujarat will face Sunrisers Hyderabad for match 12 of the ongoing Indian Premier League where SRH skipper Pat Cummins will look to repeat the World Cup final by beating Gujarat on their home ground.

On the other hand, GT is looking confident as the clash will be played at home.

The Gujarat Titans won their opener clash against the Mumbai Indians, which was captained by their former captain Hardik Pandya. On the other hand, SRH also beat Mumbai Indians in a high-scoring thriller in Hyderabad.

A plethora of subplots from outside the cricket field may have helped Gujarat Titans lift themselves to a come-from-behind win against Mumbai Indians in their season opener, but a 63-run defeat away against the Chennai Super Kings is something different!

David Miller, for example, has crossed 30 only three times in 15 innings this year and averages 29. His strike rate of 119 this year is also his worst in 13 years, a steep drop.

A rampaging Sunrisers Hyderabad arrives fresh off a performance that rewrote IPL record books.

Travis Head has his own love story with Ahmedabad since the ODI World Cup final, Abhishek Sharma has carried his form from the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy well; and Heinrich Klaasen is the only man to hit 50 T20 sixes this year.

With the Narendra Modi Stadium one of the country's best surfaces for batters, the Titans will need someone to fill the shoes with Mohammed Shami at both ends of their innings.

The Titans, though, can hit back. Barring Pat Cummins, the Sunrisers pacers have gone at 11.93 runs per over in IPL 2024 and it is an area the hosts can exploit, especially their captain Shubman Gill.

Ahmedabad is Gill's favorite venue - 700 runs in 13 innings at an average of nearly 64 and a strike rate of almost 160 - and with only 37 runs in two innings this season, he will be itching for a sizeable contribution!!

Tags Credit: Sutapasima

Team news and impact player strategy

Gujarat Titans

The Titans are usually predictable with their impact substitutions, so expect fast bowler Mohit Sharma and left-hand batter Sai Sudharsan to swap places. Matthew Wade is also available after missing the first two games playing the Sheffield Shield final. Shahrukh Khan or Abhinav Manohar could be tempting options in the middle order.

Probable XII: 1 Shubman Gill (capt), 2 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3 Sai Sudharsan, 4 Vijay Shankar, 5 David Miller, 6 Azmatullah Omarzai, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 R Sai Kishore, 10 Spencer Johnson, 11 Umesh Yadav, 12 Mohit Sharma

Sunrisers Hyderabad

After excelling in their season opener, T Natarajan missed Sunrisers' second game with an unspecified niggle and his availability is unknown. Jaydev Unadkat, his replacement against Mumbai Indians, impressed with his change-ups and could keep his place in the XI. Wanindu Hasaranga has also not yet arrived in India.

As for Impact Player options, Sunrisers could start with medium-pacer Nitish Reddy or fast bowler Umran Malik if bowling first, with Travis Head replacing them in the second innings. Washington Sundar could also be a realistic option against left-hand heavy Titans.

Probable XII: 1 Mayank Agarwal, 2 Travis Head, 3 Abhishek Sharma, 4 Aiden Markram, 5 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 Abdul Samad, 7 Shahbaz Ahmed, 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Mayank Markande, 11 Jaydev Unadkat / T Natarajan, 12 Umran Malik

In the spotlight

In two innings, Vijay Shankar has scored 18 runs in 17 balls. He has not bowled either. Against a high-scoring side like Sunrisers, the Titans could be tempted to play Shahrukh Khan instead to add power to the middle order, especially since he follows a consolidator like Sudharsan at No. 3. Shankar, though, enjoys facing Bhuvneshwar Kumar (16 off 5, strike rate 320) and Jaydev Unadkat (15 off 7, strike rate 214) in T20 cricket.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is yet to take a wicket in his two IPL 2024 outings and has conceded 104 runs in eight overs. Against both Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians, Bhuvneshwar made promising starts to his spell but ended up leaking big runs in the death overs. As the senior-most bowler in a franchise where he has played since 2014, Bhuvneshwar needs to either find wickets or get his runs down. Ideally, he'd want to do both.

Stats that matter

Gill has historically struggled to put Bhuvneshwar away in the IPL, scoring only 50 runs in 48 balls while being dismissed three times in nine innings. He also has a strike rate of only 94.4 against Unadkat.

In 23 balls, Abhishek has hit Rashid for three fours and three sixes, averaging a boundary every 3.6 deliveries. His strike rate against Rashid is 204 overall and this IPL, he is scoring at 226.

Klaasen is hitting a six one out of every 5.4 balls in 2024, behind only Andre Russell's ball-per-six ratio of 4.6. Fifty of his 53 sixes have come between long-off and deep backward square leg.

Since the start of IPL 2023, the team batting first has won six of the ten IPL games played in Ahmedabad.

Pitch and conditions

Ahmedabad usually offers a true batting surface with enough on offer to keep pacers and spinners interested. Spinners can also use the long square boundaries to good effect. The average first-innings winning score here since 2021 in the IPL is 188. In the last outing at the venue, the Titans defended 168 successfully. Expect a hot afternoon with a peak of 35 degrees during toss time.

What to expect: Sometimes, the pitches here are slow. Sometimes, they are belters. There were a few high-scoring games in IPL 2023 but there have been some middling totals here too. The 2023 World Cup matches played here were proof of that. In the previous season, the Titans failed to defend 204 against the Knight Riders and then kept Lucknow Super Giants to 171 after posting a massive 227 in the afternoon matches at this venue.

It'll be back to the drawing board for the Sunrisers. After the batting fest in Hyderabad where 523 runs were scored, coming close on the heels of a 412-run contest in Kolkata, SRH might have to quickly readjust the tempo depending on what type of pitch is offered in Ahmedabad.

But who better than their captain Pat Cummins, coach Daniel Vettori, and the Indian crowd silencer Travis Head to adapt to the venue that brought the trio a big golden prize last November.

For the Titans, they'll be hoping that the comfort of home aids them in getting back on track as they return from the trip to Chennai where they were humbled by the defending champions by a 63-run margin.

With the batting order still finding its feet under new captain Shubman Gill and the bowling unit trying to mask the absence of a big name like Mohammed Shami, the Titans might just prefer a slow surface which the venue tends to provide every now and again.

Team watch

Gujarat Titans

Injury/Availability: Matthew Wade has joined the team ahead of their third match and should be available for selection, having missed the first couple of games to take part in the Sheffield Shield final.

Tactics & Matchups: Mohit Sharma picked up 4 for 28 the last time GT played against SRH at this venue. With 17 wickets in overs 16-20 and an economy of 8.69, he will be their key bowler in the death, going up against SRH's powerful batting lineup.

Probable XI: Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, R Sai Kishore, Umesh Yadav, Spencer Johnson. [Impact sub: Mohit Sharma for Sai Sudharsan].

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Injury/Availability: There is still no clarity on when Wanindu Hasaranga will join the SRH team. T Natarajan missed the last game due to a niggle and if fit, he could replace Jaydev Unadkat although the latter did exceedingly well against Mumbai's band of heavy hitters.

Tactics & Matchups: Both Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen have a favourable matchup against premier legspinner Rashid Khan. Both have been dismissed only once each by the Afghanistan wrist spinner and have a strike rate of 204.35 and 196.77 respectively against him, with five fours and eight sixes between them. Meanwhile, SRH will look to use Bhuvneshwar Kumar's good numbers against Shubman Gill to their advantage, with the experienced seamer having dismissed the GT captain three times and conceding only 50 off 48.

Probable XI: Travis Head, Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, T Natarajan/Jaydev Unadkat. [Impact sub: Umran Malik for Travis Head].

Did you know?

- Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umran Malik both bagged five-wicket hauls in two different games against Titans and both were in losing causes.

- None of the Titans batters have registered a fifty-plus score so far in IPL 2024, with Sai Sudharsan's 45 off 39 against MI being their highest.

- Mohammed Shami has picked up 28 wickets in the powerplay alone, at an average of 21.25, with a strike rate of 18 and economy of 7.08. The rest of the GT bowlers combined have 27 wickets at an average of 41.44 and strike rate of 28, with an economy of 8.88 in this phase.

What did they say?

"I've been really impressed with the way he's conducted himself as a leader. I think he's embraced it (captaincy) really well. He's shown some good leadership qualities. He's a smart guy. He's a young captain, and there's lots to learn, especially in T20. So, he'll learn along the way." - Gary Kirsten, GT mentor.

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