Gujarat Titans can only retain 5 players.Image Credit Source: PTI
The IPL retention announcement is not far away. On October 31, the 10 franchises will reveal which players they have retained. However, even before this, there are continuous discussions about many players and teams. Names like KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant are prominent while all eyes are also on the champions Kolkata Knight Riders. Amidst all this, news about former champions Gujarat Titans is also emerging. Captain Shubman Gill and veteran spinner Rashid Khan are already believed to be retained, but apart from them, there are 3 more players whose names appear to be final, one of whom is Rahul Tewatia.
Last season was not good for the Gujarat Titans, champion in 2022 and runners-up in 2023. After the departure of captain Hardik Pandya, the team finished in eighth place with 5 wins in 14 games. In the same season, star batsman Shubhman Gill was named captain of the team for the first time. However, it was a year full of ups and downs for him, where he himself was unable to generate the same impact that he had shown in 2023. Despite this, it seemed certain that the franchise would retain him because not only did he become the vice-captain of the team of India but also became a big brand.
In such a situation, there cannot be any doubt about the possibility of hiring Shubhman Gill. Sunrisers Hyderabad definitely made the mistake of leaving out a bowler like Afghan star Rashid Khan, but Gujarat would not like to repeat this mistake. Aside from these, who else will be retained is a big question. A report claims that apart from Gill and Rashid, Gujarat Titans can retain Rahul Tewatia, Sai Sudarshan and Shahrukh Khan. While Tewatia has proven to be an excellent finisher, Shahrukh also showed flashes of explosive batting in the last season. Young batsman Sai Sudarshan has been scoring runs continuously.
That means the franchise will release Team India’s star fast bowler Mohammed Shami and South Africa’s legendary batsman David Miller. However, looking at the performance of these two giants, one can guess that the Gujarat Titans may bid for these two again in the mega auction. However, the number of Shami aspirants may increase, so the decision to release him may prove detrimental to Gujarat.
