The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 didn’t get off to a good start for the Gujarat Titans as the Shubman Gill-led side was rocked early at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. After being asked to bat by the defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), the Titans lost in-form opening batters Gill and Sai Sudharsan inside the powerplay. When the Gujarat Titans captain Gill was dismissed by Josh Hazlewood in the third over, one expected to see Jos Buttler come out, but it wasn’t to be.
The Gujarat Titans management, spearheaded by head coach Ashish Nehra, decided to send out youngster Nishant Sindhu at No.3. This move instantly raised a few eyebrows and former South Africa and RCB batter AB de Villiers didn’t mince his words as he criticised the think tank for demoting Buttler when the England great has the knack of changing the game on his day.
“Don’t want to risk Buttler early, pushing him back. I can relate to this because I was in that position throughout my career. So, there are two sides of the story, and they have decided to go ahead with that tonight,” said de Villiers on air.
“Push Buttler back, make the batting lineup seem a bit deeper,” he added.
However, when the former South Africa captain was pressed on whether he sees the move as a defensive call, de Villiers said, “It’s defensive, and I don’t like it. Is that clear enough?”
In the end, the call to have Sindhu at No.3 didn’t pay off as the left-handed batter returned with just 20 runs off 18 balls and was eventually sent back to the pavilion by Rasikh Salam Dar.
Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar strike
After Hazlewood removed Gill with a short delivery in the third over, Gujarat were dealt another body blow as Bhuvneshwar Kumar removed Sai Sudharsan in the very next over. While Gill scored 10, Sudharsan returned with 12 runs.
With both Gill and Sudharsan flopping on the big day, the Orange Cap was decided, and the award went to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who returned with a haul of 776 runs in the IPL 2026 season.
Coming back to the final, RCB skipper Patidar won the toss and opted to bowl. At the toss, the RCB captain said, “It’s a pretty good wicket. The ball will come nicely on the bat, but to be honest, it will not change in the 40 overs. So we’ll try to get them as early as possible.”
RCB won the IPL 2025 title last year at the Narendra Modi Stadium after defeating the Punjab Kings. If Patidar wins against the Gujarat Titans on Sunday, then he would become only the third captain in the tournament’s history, after MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, to win the competition back-to-back.
“A lot of memories last year, but I think it was in 2025. It’s 2026. We have to do our best to win this match. That’s important, to keep yourself in the present, not to be too far ahead. Let’s control the controllables, that’s it. We always love to play in this stadium because of the crowd, the way they come, and especially the RCB supporters – the 12th man army. They came to every stadium and supported us,” said Patidar.
