CHENNAI: Four years ago, Hardik Pandya led Gujarat Titans to their maiden title in their debut Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
It set the ball rolling for a lot of things, including Pandya's captaincy, Shubman Gill's rise and more. However, the league and format was not what it is today. 250-plus totals were not the norm. The Impact Player rule was yet to be implemented and the IPL generation was still in making. Pandya and Titans repeated the run to the final in 2023 but fell short to Chennai Super Kings in a season that saw the Impact Player rule come into existence.
One of the reasons behind their consistent runs in the first two seasons was the heavy lifting from the top-order. Gill smashed 890 runs in 2023 following a significant contribution in the year before. B Sai Sudharsan developed as a top-order batter. They were soon joined by Jos Buttler after Pandya was traded to Mumbai Indians.
In the two years that has followed, the trend has continued with Sudharsan becoming the leading run-getter for Titans in both 2024 and 2025. Last season, he was also the Orange Cap holder with Gill and Buttler not too far behind. However, unlike 2022 and 2023, Titans have missed one crucial factor and that has come to cost them in a big way — contribution from the middle-order (Nos 4-7).
Pandya and David Miller held the line-up together in the middle with support from Rashid Khan and Rahul Tewatia in the first two seasons. Pandya topped batting charts for GT in 2022 to be followed by Gill and Miller. Those kinds of contributions have been missed in the last few years. One look at the numbers tells the story. From adding 1297 runs in 2022, the middle-order (4-7) has gradually produced fewer returns. Last year, their No. 4-7 added 736 runs, 23 fewer than what Sudharsan scored (759).
Now, there is no doubt that the pace at which players bat has changed drastically, especially with Impact Player rule, but that has not reflected in Titans' numbers. In 2024, their middle-order struck at 141.01 and last year it was 164.28. It may not seem as bad, but in the larger context, Titans have the lowest aggregate (2289) from middle-order (with just five 50-plus scores) in the three seasons since the Impact Player rule came into existence (till 2025). There are two main reasons for it. Titans are constructed as a top-heavy team where the three prolific run-accumulators do the work. Numbers reflect that too. In contrast to their middle-order numbers, Titans have the highest aggregate (4986) from top three batters in the three seasons since the Impact Player rule came in.
However, it has not helped them when it mattered the most. And that is predominantly because of the lack of experience in the middle-order. From having Pandya, Miller and Tewatia as their No 4-6, Titans have now gone to Glenn Phillips, Washington Sundar, Tewatia and M Shahrukh Khan. Due respect to Phillips, the New Zealander is yet to nail his spot. Washington, predominantly a top-order batter, has been around for a while without securing one fixed spot. Shahrukh, too, hasn't lived up to the billing so far despite being regarded as an explosive batter in the domestic circuit. Tewatia hasn't been consistent either.
While other teams have managed to assemble a big-hitting middle-order to dominate the proceedings, Titans have a consistent top-three that may not be as explosive as rest of the franchises. Put it together with the brittle middle-order, Titans have a problem as seen in the first two games where they could not pull their weight.
Sudharsan, however, backed their middle-order to come good ahead of the clash against Delhi Capitals on Wednesday. "If someone from the top three batters plays longer, it's always a great thing. We believe in our middle order. This is the team which played last year and we qualified. So it's just two games and I and the whole team believes that our middle-order will win games," he said.
The coming games will tell whether Titans have the middle-order prowess to replicate the past performances.
