New Delhi, April 7 (IANS) Gujarat Titans (GT) captain Shubman Gill will be available for the team’s upcoming IPL 2026 against Delhi Capitals (DC), to be played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday, confirmed his opening partner B Sai Sudharsan.
Gill missed GT’s clash against Rajasthan Royals, which they lost by six runs in Ahmedabad, due to a muscle spasm. “Shubman has no problem. He is completely fine, he will be fine. Of course, yes (he will open),” said Sudharsan in the pre-match press conference.
Gill’s availability comes as a major boost for IPL 2022 winners GT, who are yet to open their account in the ongoing tournament after consecutive defeats. Sudharsan, however, expressed confidence in the team’s ability to bounce back, especially in their middle order batters.
“I think it is a mixture of both – as opening batters and top three batters, if someone plays longer, it is always a great thing for the team. I think we believe in our middle order, they will (come good). This is the team which you know in which we played last year and we qualified.
“So it is just two games and I believe and the whole team believes that we will definitely have a great middle order and win games. IPL is such a tournament where in two-three days when you keep on playing matches, momentum is one of the important things in the tournament.
“Yes, we look back on these 2 games and we have learnt a lot for sure and I think we will look forward to doing that, so that we get our first win and get the momentum back,” he said.
Left-handed opener Sudharsan has made 86 runs in two games so far and was the leading run-getter in IPL 2025. He further stated that he is always working hard to evolve his batting as per the fast-growing demands of T20 cricket.
“I think I do not look at it as a different tournament. Wherever I play, whatever matches I play, the preparation is very similar and the effort or the hard work behind it is very similar. I am just grateful and lucky enough to execute it here.”
“Definitely as the sport is evolving and the T20 batting is getting greater and greater every season or even every 5-6 months if you can see, it is very important for me to learn from it and be versatile enough to have that in my kitty and equip myself with that. So definitely there are improvements to be made and of course, I am looking at it.”
Sudharsan also shed light on his mental preparation routine, which he said plays a decisive role in his performances. “In most of the part is mental preparation, I think once the pre-season camp is over, I think it is all about fine tuning and having your thoughts clear and having your mind sorted and organised is the biggest thing. I put a lot of time on that – I do yoga, meditation, and visualisation to keep myself mentally fit.”
Elaborating on GT’s batting approach at the top of the order, Sudharsan stressed on reading conditions and building a platform rather than going all guns blazing from the word go. “It is important to understand what is required on this wicket to do and then what is required for our team to have a very good start so that our middle order or the lower order have a very good platform to launch in the last four-five overs.
“So, as much as possible we try and do play the percentages whatever possibly we can do so that most of the time we come in a situation we win, so that is our mindset when we enter the game. It is not bang bang – we are not going all out.
“We are assessing the conditions when we see what is required on this wicket and which will be the best score for our bowling team to defend or let’s say if we are chasing what will be the best six overs we can have if we have to have a very good last five overs of platform,” he concluded.
–IANS
nr/
