By Prakash Nair 
Ahmedabad, April 20: Shubman Gill won the toss and did not think twice about it.
Bowl first. Simple as that.
On a warm April evening in Ahmedabad, with dew almost certain to roll in as the night gets going, putting the Mumbai Indians in to bat was the obvious call. Still, obvious calls need someone with the confidence to make them, and Gill made it without blinking. GT’s bowling attack the best in this IPL by every number that exists gets the fresh ball, gets the conditions at their most helpful, and gets to do what they have been doing to opposition top orders all season.
Mumbai Indians bat first. Gujarat Titans hunt wickets. That is the shape of tonight.
The One Piece of News MI Fans Have Been Waiting For
Before anyone gets to tactics and matchups and pitch reports, there is one thing that changes the feel of this game entirely.
Rohit Sharma is playing tonight.
He has been out since April 12, when a hamstring strain during the RCB game forced him off the field and out of MI’s next match against Punjab Kings. He was back in the nets over the weekend, reportedly hitting his pull shots cleanly, and MI bowling coach Paras Mhambrey confirmed before the game that the recovery was done. No more waiting. No more fitness assessments. Rohit is in the XI and he is opening the batting alongside Quinton de Kock.
For context, de Kock scored 112 not out in Rohit’s absence last game. An unbeaten hundred in T20 cricket, holding a crumbling innings together almost entirely on his own. He is not out of form. He is very much in form. So MI’s top two tonight Rohit and de Kock, back together, both with something to prove, is genuinely one of the more dangerous opening combinations in this tournament when it is clicking.
The question is whether it clicks tonight. Under lights. On a surface where GT’s pace bowlers have been absolutely relentless. In a ground where MI have never, not once, beaten the Gujarat Titans.
But still. Rohit being back matters. It matters for the batting balance, it matters for the team’s energy, and it matters for the five or six lads in that dressing room who have been grinding through a rough few weeks without their most experienced player.
Confirmed Playing XIs
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (c), B Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wk), Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Rahul Tewatia, M Shahrukh Khan, Rashid Khan, Ashok Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.
Mumbai Indians: Quinton de Kock (wk), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Sherfane Rutherford, Mitchell Santner, Trent Boult, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar. Impact Player: Jasprit Bumrah.
GT’s Plan Is Written on the Toss Sheet
Gill bowling first in Ahmedabad is not a surprise. It is barely even a decision at this point it is just what you do here in April when the dew is coming and your bowling attack is this good.
Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada open the bowling. They hit the seam hard, they find movement with the new ball, and they have been blowing through top orders all season. Between them, they tore through KKR’s batting four days ago inside the first four overs. MI’s openers, however good, are going to walk out tonight knowing exactly what is coming at them.
Prasidh Krishna has 11 wickets this season. Rashid Khan has 24 career wickets at this specific ground. The middle overs are not going to be comfortable for whoever is batting either.
GT’s plan tonight does not require any imagination. Bowl tight, take wickets, restrict MI to something under 180, and then let Gill, de Kock, and Buttler chase it down like they have been chasing totals down all month.
What Mumbai Need in the First Six Overs
Everything for MI tonight starts with the powerplay.
If Rohit and de Kock can survive Siraj and Rabada and get MI to 50 or 55 for one or fewer wickets after six overs, the game is competitive. The dew will be settling by then. The pitch will be getting easier to bat on. The score can be built.
If GT take two or three early wickets if Siraj finds that outswinger and de Kock edges it, if Rabada gets one to nip back and clips Rohit’s stumps then MI are chasing the game before it has really started. And chasing the game in a ground where they have zero wins against this team is a brutal place to be.
Rohit has faced quality pace bowling all his career and handled most of it. His pull shot, his ability to get inside the line of short deliveries, his read of swing all of it is elite. Whether eight days away from the game affects his timing in those first few deliveries is the real unknown tonight.
Where Is Bumrah? The Impact Player Call Explained
Here is the interesting bit tucked into MI’s team sheet.
Jasprit Bumrah is not in the starting XI. He is listed as the Impact Player meaning he begins the match on the bench and can be brought in to replace another player at a point of MI’s choosing.
It is a tactical decision that cuts both ways. On one hand, keeping Bumrah as a trump card gives MI the flexibility they can bring him in during the second innings when his wicket-taking ability matters most in a run chase, or alternatively, sub him in with the bat if a specific matchup demands it. On the other hand, the man has bowled 114 deliveries this season without a wicket. Leaving your best bowler on the bench even strategically, when you are four losses deep into a bad run, is the kind of call that gets questioned loudly if things go wrong.
Hardik Pandya will have thought this through. At least, you hope he has.
Tonight in Short
Rohit is back. Gill is bowling first. The ground has never seen MI beat GT. Bumrah is watching from the bench for now. And somewhere in the middle of all this, a proper game of cricket is about to happen.
MI have the batting to post a big score tonight. They genuinely do. Rohit, de Kock, Suryakumar, Rutherford that is a lineup with firepower. But GT’s bowling attack has not put a foot wrong in weeks, and Ahmedabad at night, under these lights, in front of this crowd, belongs to the home side.
Something has to break tonight, one way or the other.
Rabada gets the better of de Kock
This one had South Africa written all over it.
De Kock and Rabada have shared nets, shared dressing rooms, shared long tours. They know each other’s games probably better than most opponents ever will. And coming into tonight, de Kock had absolutely owned this particular matchup, 140 runs off 96 balls against Rabada in non-international T20 cricket, dismissed just once.
So when Rabada landed a half-volley on the leg side first up, de Kock did what he always does against loose deliveries from anyone, friend or not. He put it over the rope for six. Then came width outside off, a short ball sitting up nicely, and de Kock freed his arms and cut it away for four. Looked like more of the same. Looked like another evening where the old net rivalry was going de Kock’s way.
Then Rabada dug one in hard. 150 kilometres an hour, aimed at the body, giving de Kock absolutely no room to free his arms. The ball rushed him. Cramped him up completely. The top edge flew, and Rabada, running in the direction of the pull, took it himself.
He knew what he had done. So did everyone inside the stadium.
25 for 2 in 3.3 overs. MI in early trouble. Again.
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- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
Arun Upadhayay