Ahmedabad has come to mirror the IPL in the Impact Player era: inflated scoring baselines, deeper batting, and a constant sense that no target is quite enough. Here, 210 is the new 170 more than any other venue. So, when Rajasthan Royals posted 210, it felt par at mid innings. Even 12 overs into the chase, with 84 needed and eight wickets in hand, Gujarat Titans seemed in control. What followed instead was a collapse that began to look like a pattern: five wickets in three overs, and a lower middle order unable to course-correct for the second game running.

The signs were there earlier. Against Punjab Kings in their opening game of the season, Titans went from 119/2 in the 14th over to 162/6 in 20, managing just 34 runs in the last five overs without a single six.

In IPL 2025, Titans operated against the grain. While most sides redistributed risk across a longer batting order, they doubled down on a top-heavy model. Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Jos Buttler each scored over 500 runs at strike rates north of 150, with at least one of them batting deep into the death overs (16-20) in 12 of 15 matches. That consistency insured their volatile middle order.

Numbers underline the paradox. Titans' #4 to #8 had the best strike rate in the league (162.71) and were the quickest starters (first five-ball strike rate of 150.43, comfortably ahead of the next best by 15 points). But they also had one of the lowest balls-per-dismissal ratios (13.1). It was high-risk hitting enabled by the cushion created up top.

Teams' #4 to #8 in IPL 2025

* FFB SR: First five balls strike rate

The dismissals did not hurt as much then because the top three absorbed risk. Gill and Sudharsan were among the most productive in the death overs, alongside Buttler. Around them, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Washington Sundar and Rashid Khan played high-variance roles: low balls per dismissal, middling returns, but acceptable within a system that rarely exposed them early.

Titans batters in death overs (16-20) in IPL 2025

That system now looks fragile. All three of Gill, Sudharsan and Buttler came into the season short on T20 form, making a repeat of the 2025 template highly improbable. Two games in, that risk has surfaced. Early entry points for the middle order have meant longer spells against spin - not the preferred matchup for either of their Indian middle order batters - and it showed when Ravi Bishnoi undid two if the southpaws with googlies.

Titans' top three in T20s bw IPL 2025 & 2026

Personnel changes have only sharpened the problem. The exit of Sherfane Rutherford - one of the more effective enforcers in this phase since the SA20 last December - has removed a degree of insurance. Neither Glenn Phillips, nor the bench options in Tom Banton or Jason Holder, offer a ready-made solution to this specific imbalance either.

Titans' model was always a calculated gamble: concentrate stability at the top, keep wickets in hand, accept volatility below. When the former weakens even slightly, the latter is no longer a feature and instead becomes the fault line.