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Vikram Solanki wore the look of a man satisfied but still searching for that extra inch after Gujarat Titans slipped to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Sunday’s IPL final. The director of cricket congratulated the champions first, then paused before picking through the details of his own side’s season.
“I’ll begin by congratulating RCB. They’ve had an outstanding campaign,” Solanki said. “They finished at the top of the table in the league stage and then went on to beat us twice, so we must take that on board. As far as our campaign is concerned, we’re immensely proud as a group of what we’ve achieved. There’s no question that we would have liked to have gone one step further, but there are a lot of other teams that would have gladly taken our place as well.”
Key facts up front
• RCB, table-toppers, beat GT in Qualifier 1 and again in the final.
• Titans arrived in Ahmedabad barely 20 hours before the decider after a three-city, five-day slog.
• Total at Motera: RCB 176 for 6; GT 161 all out – hardly a 200-plus surface, as Solanki later noted.
Travel grind, no excuses
GT’s supporters have pointed to the schedule—the loss in Dharamsala forced them into the long route, hopping from the Eliminator to Qualifier 2 and then the final—but Solanki refused to lean on that.
“The number of games in a short period of time is challenging,” he said. “Of course it is at the end of a campaign, but I’m not going to lean on that at all. The fact is that RCB have beaten us today, and we must be strong enough to hold our heads high and be proud of the campaign that we’ve put together, yet also be gracious enough to congratulate RCB.”
He went further. “So, I don’t want to take away from the fact that RCB have won by simply saying, ‘oh, we’ve had this number of games in such a short space of time and we’re fatigued’. That’s not really what we’re about.”
A delayed flight into a storm-soaked Ahmedabad could have been another crutch, yet Solanki brushed that aside too. “Unfortunately, I can’t control the weather. If the weather means we have to land late, then there’s nothing we can do about it. We had an opportunity to challenge RCB. In parts, we did, but they were the better side today and I think it’s as simple as that.”
Top-order weight, middle-order gap
All season GT’s runs came in bulk from Shubman Gill and B Sai Sudharsan, with Jos Buttler chipping in. The pair of Gill and Sudharsan alone stacked up three century stands and each crossed 700 runs—numbers that would anchor most sides. Even so, it left the middle fragile, a point raised once more after they slipped to 42 for 2 in the final.
“The number of times I’ve had to answer that question… quite seriously, we’ve just played a final. This notion of [over-reliance on] the top two or top three… we’ve played a final. I think you should accept the fact that we’ve had a reasonable campaign, and the details of that are there for everyone to see – the number of runs scored and so on.”
Sindhu at three – a late call
With both openers gone early on Sunday, the think-tank sent 20-year-old Nishant Sindhu ahead of Buttler. The left-hander scratched around for nine balls before edging a drive to slip. Solanki revealed the move came from head coach Ashish Nehra on the spur of the moment rather than any pre-game blueprint. It was a gamble aimed at upsetting RCB’s match-ups but, like many late-tournament punts, it didn’t land.
Pitch offered more grip than glare
Solanki, a batter of tidy technique in his own playing days, felt the surface was closer to 170 than the 200-plus usually associated with a final at Narendra Modi Stadium. That reads well against the scorecard: RCB’s 176 looked a touch over par once the ball softened. Titans’ chase was alive until the 17th over, yet a sequence of slower balls from Mohammed Siraj and a tidy penultimate over by Yash Dayal shut the door.
Analytical glance: where GT fell just short
1. Powerplay parity: Titans lost Gill and Buttler inside four overs; RCB had Virat Kohli humming at 30 off 18.
2. Middle-overs squeeze: Glenn Maxwell dragged it back with 3-0-16, taking pace off. GT’s corresponding overs bled 55.
3. Death-overs clarity: RCB late runs from Rajat Patidar (34 off 14) stretched the total. Titans needed a similar spark; it never came.
Hunger intact, rebuild begins
Solanki stressed that the campaign, runners-up medal and all, still sits alongside the franchise’s maiden title in 2022 and semi-final spot last year as proof of consistency. The squad isn’t ripped apart in the off-season; rather, expect one or two middle-order reinforcements and possibly another seam-bowling all-rounder if the auction purse allows.
In a final thought, the director looked down at a boot scuffed by the Ahmedabad dust, then up at the press pack. “We’ll debrief, lick our wounds and go again. There’s a lot to like about this group, a lot still to do.”
Professional pride, no fireworks; that, in essence, is how Gujarat Titans closed out 2026—beaten on the night, but anything but broken.
