Sanjay Manjrekar on Gujarat Titans

Gujarat Titans will begin their IPL 2023 campaign by taking on Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad in the season opener on Friday, March 31. Speaking ahead of the new season Manjrekar shared his views on Gujarat Titans. He said during a discussion on Star Sports, “They had the worst performance in the IPL 2022 auction but ended up winning the title. There were huge gambles they played.”

The former Mumbai batter added that appointing Pandya as captain after the all-rounder was released by Mumbai Indians (MI) was a gamble that paid off in brilliant fashion. The 57-year-old commented, “Take the decision of appointing Hardik Pandya as the captain for that matter. Who’d have imagined he’d become such a brilliant captain? David Miller, a long-term flop show in the IPL, suddenly had the best season and he carried that form into his international career.”

Pandya was in woeful form ahead of the IPL last year and was even dropped from the Indian team. Miller too had struggled for many seasons in the IPL, but found his mojo during IPL 2022. The duo combined superbly and scored over 400 runs each as Gujarat ended up being the winners against all odds.

Concluding his views on the defending champions, Manjrekar said, “So, it’s a team built and supported by realists. So they are going to adjust fine and win games and I expect them to carry the same kind of confidence they had last season. The team hasn’t changed that much from the previous season.”

Gujarat Titans squad for IPL 2023

Hardik Pandya (captain), Shubman Gill, David Miller, Kane Williamson, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudharsan, Wriddhiman Saha, Mohit Sharma, KS Bharat, Matthew Wade, Rashid Khan, Odean Smith, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav, R. Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmad, Shivam Mavi, Urvil Patel, Joshua Little.