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Big Picture – Rematch of the IPL 2022 final
Royals have had all their success setting sizeable totals and defending them. Against Super Kings, they became the first team to successfully defend a sub-190 score, earning their third bat-first win in four games. Titans meanwhile have put together chases in a calculative manner, with a deep batting line-up, and have lost just once chasing in 12 games since the start of IPL 2022.
Royals will want their openers to set the tone. No pair this season has scored more runs in partnership quicker (194 runs at a strike rate of 202) or hit more powerplay boundaries than Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal (19 apiece). They also do exceedingly well against spinners, averaging 72 runs per wicket, the best (by far) among the 10 teams. Their experienced bowling has been exceptional too. R Ashwin (6.4) and Trent Boult (7.3) are among the tidiest bowlers in terms of economy this season while Yuzvendra Chahal (10 wickets) is an early purple cap contender.
Form guide (most recent match first)
Titans: WLWW
Royals: WWLW
Team news – All eyes on Trent Boult
Boult was rested due to a “small niggle” in their last game. If he returns, then fellow pacer Kuldeep Sen gets benched (and perhaps Adam Zampa makes way on the overseas roster).
Titans have no injury concerns.
Toss and Impact Player strategy
Gujarat Titans
Bat-first XI (possible): 1 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Sai Sudharsan, 4 Hardik Pandya, 5 Vijay Shankar, 6 David Miller, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Mohit Sharma, 11 Alzarri Joseph.
Bowl-first XI (possible): 1 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Hardik Pandya, 4 Vijay Shankar, 5 David Miller, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Mohammed Shami, 8 Josh Little, 9 Rashid Khan, 10 Mohit Sharma, 11 Alzarri Joseph.
Rajasthan Royals
Bat-first XI (possible): 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Jos Buttler, 3 Devdutt Padikkal/Riyan Parag, 4 Sanju Samson (capt, wk), 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Dhruv Jurel, 7 Jason Holder, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Sandeep Sharma, 10 Trent Boult/Adam Zampa, 11 Kuldeep Sen.
Bowl-first XI (possible): 1 Jos Buttler, 2 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 3 Sanju Samson (capt, wk), 4 Shimron Hetmyer, 5 Jason Holder, 6 Devdutt Padikkal/Riyan Parag, 7 R Ashwin, 8 Sandeep Sharma, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 Trent Boult/Adam Zampa, 11 Kuldeep Sen.
Pitch and conditions
Since IPL 2021, only twice in nine occasions has a team successfully defended in Ahmedabad. The average first-innings winning score in this period is 175.
Sunday evening will be hot, with temperatures around 35 degrees C.
Stats that matter
- Shubman Gill is not fluent against Boult or Chahal. He has a strike rate of 98 against the pacer and 104 against the spinner.
- Sanju Samson enjoys facing Mohammed Shami: scoring 54 runs in 28 balls with only one dismissal.
- Shimron Hetmyer has faced Shami five times in T20s. He’s been dismissed by Shami on four of those occasions.
- Hardik Pandya has been out for single digits in all his three innings this season.
- David Miller has been among the best IPL chasers recently. Since the start of IPL 2022, he has been out only twice in 11 innings in a chase. He averages 184 with a strike rate of 151 batting second in that period.
Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @sreshthx
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