A resurgent Gujarat Titans (GT) will be keen on extending its winning run and solidifying its Playoffs bid when it hosts Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
Two consecutive wins have nudged GT to the brink of top four, and in toppling defending champion Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Thursday, it got the tailwind it needed before facing the table topper.
Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Siraj’s incisive opening burst was vital in sapping the momentum out of RCB’s innings. In fact, the pair has disrupted teams consistently in the early overs. Rabada is the most successful bowler in the PowerPlay this year with 10 wickets. Siraj has six wickets but his economy of 6.95 is the second-best by any bowler (min. 60 balls bowled) in this phase.
Punjab deploys a batting template similar to RCB and can be thrown off track by the pair. Prabhsimran Singh, PBKS’ in-form batter at the top, has been nabbed twice in three innings by Rabada and averages just 10.
That the game will be played on Pitch No. 5, where Rabada had reduced Mumbai Indians to 44 for three in the PowerPlay earlier this season, only adds to the home team’s advantage.
Arshad Khan has pulled his weight in the absence of Prasidh Krishna, and has five wickets from two games. Arshad and Jason Holder shared five wickets between them against RCB. If Rabada accounts for the top-order, this duo will be cherishing the prospect of bowling to a still untested middle-order. Barring Marcus Stoinis’ unbeaten fifty in the last match, the highest a batter outside PBKS’ top-four has scored is 29.
Two wickets for 19 runs in the last match would instil enough confidence in Rashid Khan to take on the daunting task of tying down Shreyas Iyer. The PBKS captain picked 17 runs off Rashid in just nine balls the last time the two faced off at this venue. However, across the IPL, Iyer’s strike rate hovers below 120 against the leg-spinner.
Punjab Kings’ batting has been dominant this season. | Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI
Punjab Kings’ batting has been dominant this season. | Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI
GT’s batting, still unable to find a fix for its long-standing middle-order snag, does not look as well-rounded as its bowling.
Last season, the top three of Shubman Gill, B. Sai Sudharsan, and Jos Buttler had contributed more than 70 per cent of the side’s runs. This year, their combined haul is nearly 68 per cent.
Four of GT’s five wins have come while chasing, and in three of those one of them had struck a fifty. In the fourth, against RCB, the early ransacking by Gill and Buttler had all but ensured the result in the 156-run chase.
The addition of Holder has shored up the order but the middle-order is yet to make a contribution of note.
Against PBKS, though, Titans would be more than happy for its top-three to accumulate. The league leader’s batting dominance has veiled its bowling frailties. PBKS concedes at 10.86 during the field restrictions and has just nine wickets in this phase, both among the bottom four in the league.
Its showing isn’t great at the death either, with its economy rate of 11.25 being the second-worst among the 10 teams.
Conceding totals in excess of 220, like its last two games, is unlikely on Pitch No. 5, and PBKS would hope to put on a better show before its bowling lapses snowball into a bigger crisis.
Published on May 02, 2026