Gujarat Titans have barely had time to wash their kits, never mind reset, before Sunday’s IPL final in Ahmedabad. A week that began in the hills of Dharamsala, swung south to Chennai, and now ends back home means three matches, three cities, six days. Royal Challengers Bengaluru, meanwhile, have been parked in the hotel since Tuesday night. It looks lopsided on paper; Shubman Gill is not losing sleep.
“Yeah, I mean, Dharamsala [the venue for the first qualifier] is kind of a difficult venue to get there and travel,” he admitted after Titans beat Rajasthan Royals on Friday. “Yes, physically they might have an advantage, but I think finals are all about mental [strength], so the team that is mentally up there for the challenge is the one that’s going to win.”
That, in a sentence, is the match-up. RCB arrive fresh, Chris Gayle jokes aside, with almost a week’s recovery. GT arrive weary but armed with the knowledge that Narendra Modi Stadium has felt like their private backyard – five wins from seven this season, two victories out of three previous knock-outs, including the 2022 title clincher.
“Honestly, I don’t really get [the issue of] burden of expectations [of playing another final in Ahmedabad],” Gill said. “You know, there are advantages. That’s how I see it. There’s familiarity when we play there. We know the wicket and the ground. So we know what kind of cricket we need to play there to be able to win. So in that context, I see it as an advantage because there’s a little bit of familiarity.”
For Gill, the ground is more than familiar – it is productive. Almost a quarter of his career T20 runs have come here at an average north of fifty. Since being omitted from India’s T20 World Cup squad, the opener has also turned the powerplay into a personal playground, scoring at 9.5 an over without the usual early-innings risk.
If GT are to lift a second trophy in four seasons, their new-ball bowlers must match Gill’s batting. Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Siraj have been asked to keep things simple: Test-match lengths, hard into the pitch, make the batters earn boundaries. In six of the seven home games both quicks have slogged through the bulk of the first six overs, resisting the temptation to dip into slower balls too early. The method has worked; runs dry up, pressure mounts, wickets follow.
“The message [from him and coach Ashish Nehra] is simple – when you’re bowling with the new ball, if there is a little bit in the wicket, as a batsman, I know the hardest ball to hit is obviously that good-length ball,” Gill explained, speaking as much from experience with the bat as from the dressing-room whiteboard.
RCB have their own fast-bowling weapons, most obviously a rested Mark Wood and the ever-economical Mohammed Siraj – no relation to GT’s man of the same surname – but they have preferred to strike later, stacking the death overs with pace and variations. Sunday may come down to which approach blinks first on a surface that can look true but occasionally stalls when the lights come on.
Away from the tactics board, Gill sounded philosophical about his rapid rise, temporary international snub and the weight of captaincy at 26.
“I’d be happy to play if I get picked for the [India] T20 team, but honestly I want to keep working on my game, doesn’t matter what format it is,” he said. “I want to keep getting better as a T20 batsman, as an ODI batsman, as a Test batsman. Cricket is such a game, you can never really get perfect [at it], but obviously you can strive for it and that’s what I try to do.”
A man striving for perfection against a side striving for a first IPL title; mind against muscle, rest against rhythm. The calendar has handed RCB the legs, the stadium gifts GT the comfort. By late Sunday night we will know which currency matters more.
