Gujarat Titans won their first-ever IPL trophy under the leadership of Hardik Pandya. GT faced RR in their finals and won the game by 7 wickets. No one had major expectations from this team since the squad wasn’t star-studded and its skipper Hardik Pandya didn’t produce an amazing performance for a long period of time. His former franchise team, Mumbai Indians too didn’t retain him.
Let’s talk about the main factors that helped Gujarat Titans lift their first-ever trophy in their debut season.
1. Top-notch leadership skills by Hardik Pandya
Hardik Pandya individually performed very well in the season in the batting and the bowling department. Apart from that, his choice of players and execution skills were extraordinary too which paved the way for GT’s success in the debut season.
2. Influential performances
Hardik Pandya, Shubman Gill, David Miller, and pacer Mohammed Shami – had their best season ever in the Indian Premier League. Wriddhiman Saha, also put his all to win the game. Rashid let alone a middling campaign, scalped 19 wickets and a staggering economy of 6.59 from 63.5 overs.
3. Head coach Ashish Nehra’s influence
Ashish Nehra scripted history with GT’s win since he became the first head coach under whom an IPL team has won the title. His grooming and all his experiences in the game of cricket helped him take the players on the right path.
4. David Miller as the finisher
David Miller was one of the most fruitful buys for Gujarat Titans. He was bought by the franchise for Rs. 3 Crore and was batter no. 5 which proved to be very worthy for Gujarat Titans as he was the perfect finisher and mustered a lot of runs for GT.
5. Strong Bowling attack
GT had a spectacular pace attack including Shami, Lockie Ferguson, and Alzarri Joseph. They also gave an opportunity to Yash Dayal. In the finals, GT got all the players of Rajasthan Royals out for just 130 runs. Rashid Khan also picked 18 wickets for the team. The skipper himself scalped 8 wickets.
6. Maintaining consistency throughout the season
Hardik Pandya led Gujarat Titans topped the league stages as well and have been persistent in winning the games from the very first. They even defeated Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 1 which gave them a major confidence boost.
Apart from all these factors, The finals were being played at the Ahmedabad Stadium which is pro-Titans and created a supportive ambiance for the team.
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