The Gujarat Titans franchise was launched just about 12 months ago, and now they are the defending IPL champions. After having a victorious campaign in 2022, Gujarat became only the second team after Rajasthan Royals to lift the IPL trophy in their maiden season.
Their skipper Hardik Pandya was leading an IPL franchise for the first time, and there was a lot of talk about his captaincy inexperience. But he ended up conquering the tournament for his team. Here, we will analyze the 2022 Gujarat Titans squad, which made them victorious.
Also, we will try to find out what changes we can expect for the upcoming season. So, let’s get right into it.
Gujarat Titans Squad 2022
Gujarat’s squad contained a few world-class T20 cricketers like skipper Hardik Pandya, David Miller, and Rashid Khan. Their pace bowling looked highly inexperienced, but Mohammed Shami led them well to keep the Titans afloat.
Here’s the complete Gujarat Titans squad for 2022:
Hardik Pandya (c), Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan, David Miller, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Mohammed Shami, Lockie Ferguson, Dominic Drakes, Noor Ahmad, Abhinav Sadarangani, Rahul Tewatia, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, R Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav, Vijay Shankar, Darshan Nalkande, Yash Dayal, Alzarri Joseph, Pradeep Sangwan, Gurkeerat Singh, Varun Aaron, B Sai Sudarshan, Jason Roy.
Gujarat’s middle order was their number 1 strength in IPL 2022. Hardik Pandya and David Miller used their experience to take the game deep. In the slog overs, Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan helped them finish on a high.
In the bowling department, Shami and Rashid starred with 39 wickets between them. Their consistent performances covered the inexperience in the bowling department. Apart from these two, none of the GT bowlers could make it to the top 25 highest wicket-takers of the tournament.
Gujarat Titans Retained Players for IPL 2023
Unsurprisingly, the Titans have retained 18 out of their 24 players from the last season. After having a successful campaign, a franchise must show confidence in its players, and that’s what Gujarat has done.
All the retained cricketers are listed here:
Hardik Pandya (c), Shubman Gill, David Miller, Matthew Wade, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Rahul Tewatia, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudharsan, Wriddhiman Saha, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav, R Sai Kishore
We can clearly see that Gujarat’s core strength is still there as all their star cricketers are on the retention list. The batting order looks compact and well-sorted, but bowling needs more attention.
Gujarat Titans Released Players for IPL 2023
Only 6 players have been released by the defending champions ahead of the mini-auction. These releases include two traded-out players as well.
The list of the released players, along with their last year’s salary is as follows:
| Player | IPL 2022 Salary (INR) |
| Lockie Ferguson | 10 crore |
| Jason Roy | 2 crore |
| Dominic Drakes | 1.1 crore |
| Rahmatullah Gurbaz | 50 lakh |
| Varun Aaron | 50 lakh |
| Gurkeerat Singh | 50 lakh |
Players Traded by Gujarat Titans
Gujarat has traded the Kiwi speedster Lockie Ferguson and destructive Afghan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz to Kolkata Knight Riders. Both these trades were done to increase their purse amount for the upcoming auction.
Gurbaz couldn’t find a place in the GT playing XI for the whole 2022 season. Therefore, his axing was on the cards. Ferguson was given consistent chances, but he failed to live up to expectations. In 13 games, he picked up 12 wickets while conceding runs at an economy rate of 8.96.
Final Gujarat Titans Squad before the Auctions
The defending champions have a strong and well-balanced squad for the 16th season of IPL. Let’s catch a glimpse of Gujarat Titans’ squad breakdown:
Batsmen: Shubman Gill, David Miller, Matthew Wade, Wriddhiman Saha, Abhinav Manohar, and Sai Sudharsan.
All-rounders: Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khan, Rahul Tewatia, and Vijay Shankar.
Bowlers: Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Noor Ahmad, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav, and R Sai Kishore.
Gujarat Titans Predicted Playing XI
By analyzing Gujarat’s current set of players, we can predict that their starting XI may look like this:
- Shubman Gill
- Wriddhiman Saha (wk)
- ???
- Hardik Pandya (c)
- David Miller
- Rahul Tewatia
- Rashid Khan
- Mohammad Shami
- Alzari Joseph
- ???
- ???
It’s clear that despite having a strong and balanced squad, a few slots in their playing XI are still not taken.
Players Gujarat Titans Will Target in the Mini-Auction
Although GT has got the likes of Darshan Nalkande and Noor Ahmad, their bowling options are quite limited. Moreover, there’s plenty of inexperience in their bowling lineup. Apart from Shami and Rashid, all their bowlers are heavily inexperienced. That’s why they would love to acquire a couple of seasoned T20 pacers in the auction.
Also, the one-down batting position is probably vacant at the moment. Vijay Shankar has the ability to do that job, but the Titans would prefer a more aggressive option. That’s where Ben Stokes or Cameron Green can fit in perfectly well.
Titans used their resources exceptionally well in the previous season, and they are doing the same thing this time around as well. Despite retaining most of the players from the Gujarat Titans squad 2022, they still have 19.25 crore INR left in their bidding purse. Also, GT still have room for 3 more overseas players in their squad.
As Gujarat already have 18 players in the mix, they can buy any number of players between 0 to 7 during the auction. Considering they just need three or four more blokes in their squad to find the perfect balance, the Titans can afford to go behind an expensive player like Sam Curran, Ben Stokes, or Cameron Green. Either of them can easily fit in their playing XI.
The likes of Alex Hales, Reece Topley, and Steve Smith can also interest them. Following are all the players who could potentially be on Gujarat’s radar during the auction:
- Ben Stokes
- Reece Topley
- Cameron Green
- Sam Curran
- Alex Hales
- Steve Smith
- Mandeep Singh
- Ankit Rajpoot
- Shivam Mavi
- David Malan
