After surprising several cricketing cricketing pundits and experts with their performance in IPL 2022 where they went on to lift the trophy by beating Rajasthan Royals in the final, Gujarat Titans have started off with two successive wins. Despite this being early stages of the competition, they are only one of the two teams to stay unbeaten in the tournament along with Punjab Kings.
While they beat the Chennai Super Kings in the tournament opener at their home ground, they then travelled to Delhi and picked up another win. Before their home match against Kolkata Knight Riders, former India cricketer and currently a commentator in the IPL Sanjay Manjrekar shared his views on the GT squad so far, picking them as someone who can go on to win this year.
He argued that one of the key reasons behind the success of Gujarat is the atmosphere in the dressing room which is chilled-out due to the presence of captain Hardik Pandya and head coach Ashish Nehra.
"Hardik is a successful captain because he does not take the game too seriously. Also, Ashish Nehra takes care of the tactical side and that is the reason why this team really seems to be playing as a unit. They proved it by winning the title last season and this season they beat CSK and confirmed that they are ready to defend their title," Manjrekar said on Star Sports.
After a double-header on Saturday, there are two more IPL 2023 matches scheduled on Sunday. Other than the GT-KKR game at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Sunrisers Hyderabad host Punjab Kings in the second match of the day at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. Both teams have had contrasting start to the season so far with Punjab winning each of their two matches and Hyderabad losing their twin fixtures.