Gujarat Titans skipper Shubman Gill has admitted Hardik Pandya’s departure has had a big impact on the team in the ongoing IPL 2024. After two highly successful seasons in the IPL, the Gujarat-based outfit failed to replicate those performances in the ongoing season.
Under Hardik Pandya’s captaincy, Gujarat Titans won the title in 2022 which was also their first season in the IPL. In 2023, they made it to the final before losing the title-decider against Chennai Super Kings. Before the third season, they lost the services of Hardik Pandya as the allrounder decided to return to Mumbai Indians.
After his departure, Shubman Gill was given the chance to lead the team. The youngster, however, failed to live up to the expectations in his first season as a captain. Gujarat Titans struggled for consistency throughout the season and hardly looked in contention to qualify for the playoffs. Their fate was finally sealed after the do-0r-die match against Kolkata Knight Riders was washed out.
It made them the third team after Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings to be knocked out of IPL 2024. At present, they are languishing at the eighth spot in the points table with just five wins from 13 games.
Shubman Gill on Hardik Pandya’s departure:
Speaking ahead of his team’s final league game of the season, Shubman Gill admitted that Pandya’s absence did affect the team’s balance. At the same time, the Gujarat Titans skipper made it clear that the team was not dependent only on him to get the resultst.
“A player of Hardik bhai’s calibre, if he’s missing out of any team then it would affect the combination of any team. But the beauty of team sport is it’s never done by one player. Collectively the team has to come together and perform consistently over a period of time. Those are the teams that do well.
“If you look at some of the other teams in the past 16 seasons that have done well, they have played collectively. You wouldn’t see one person or two-three people changing the course of a season, or one or two or 16 seasons for that matter.
“A player does play a big role in that matter but the team can’t only be dependent on one player. You wouldn’t see too many teams doing well who are just dependent on a couple of players,” said Shubman Gill.
Gujarat Titans will now be looking to bow out of the season on a winning note. They will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in their last last league game. The match is scheduled to take place on Thursday (May 16).
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