GT are missing Mohammed Shami with the new ball, admits Miller

Despite losing the services of Hardik Pandya, Gujarat Titans (GT) were earmarked to have a strong season, but it’s been a monumental struggle for the Titans, who find themselves ninth on the points table with 11 matches played. 

Across both the 2022 and 2023 editions of the Indian Premier League (IPL), GT proved to be a model of consistency, but they’ve not won back-to-back games all season this time around. And on May 4 (Saturday) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Shubman Gill’s side slipped to their third straight defeat to plummet to ninth spot.

Post the loss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), David Miller highlighted how the side have suffered due to their inability to win the ‘big’ moments. He also admitted that GT have been handicapped by the loss of Mohammed Shami, who across both IPL 2022 & IPL 2023 set the tone for the side with the new ball.

“The margins are really small in a sport like cricket. There are games that we lost that we so easily could have won. Very close games. If we’d won those two games, things would have been different. We’d have been 6/11 instead of 4/11,” Miller said post the RCB clash.

“First two years we won crucial moments, but this year we haven’t been able to win those crucial moments, hence we’re losing the close games. I also feel we miss Shami’s bowling in the powerplay, he was exceptional last year with the new ball, picking up wickets as well as keeping the economy rate down.”

But the veteran South African batter fully backed newly-appointed skipper Gill, who has thus far had a tough time at the helm.

“Shubman is an exceptional player, as we all know. He is still young and has got a lot to learn, but I feel his leadership has been really, really good.”

In terms of the game, Miller felt that the Titans lost the contest in the powerplay — with both bat and ball. While with the bat, GT posted the lowest powerplay score of the season (23/3), they got hammered for 92 runs in six overs with the ball.

“We lost the game in the powerplay, batting and bowling,” Miller said.

“We were a couple of wickets down for not many, while they were 90 for one after six overs. You’re not gonna win too many games scoring 150. 

“But I thought the fight was incredible. Being in the position we were with the bat, managing to get to 140-150 is something on the board. And then for us to fight back after the extraordinary powerplay RCB had was really good to see.”

The 34-year-old felt that, on the night, GT did not nail the right lengths with the ball in the powerplay, something he believed RCB did.

“I thought in the powerplay, their lengths were far better than ours,” Miller said.

“Josh did well in his last couple of overs [post the powerplay] to drag his lengths back, there was a lot of pace and bounce on this surface. There were quite a few short ball dismissals tonight, so Josh actually adapted really well. I feel like those first three overs, where they nearly scored 50-60 runs, we just missed our lengths. Just felt like we were too full. RCB did well to pounce.”

Play Asli Fantasy on Cricket.com. Download the App now!