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Gujarat Titans (GT) batting coach Matthew Hayden has blamed the top-order collapse for their massive 99-run loss to Mumbai Indians (MI) at home in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. Hayden admitted that the middle order got exposed in the unsuccessful run chase of 200. The former Australian opener feels that GT lost the game in the powerplay itself, having lost the wickets of Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler and skipper Shubman Gill. He defended Shahrukh Khan as is yet to cross the 20-run mark this season.
"The middle order was undoubtedly exposed today. The thing about the powerplays is that, you can't win it from there, especially in a run chase, but you can definitely lose it. And we lost it in the powerplay,” Hayden said in the post-match press conference.
"We're putting a lot of pressure on our middle order. When you look at the way that you go about the middle order, go about preparation, it's vastly different to way the top three handle those preparations. They are batting for impact. You know, when you send Shahrukh Khan there - I don't know the numbers - if you're getting seven balls and you're striking at 180, you're having a hell of a season. See, those numbers seem ridiculous if you're looking for aggregates and averages and all of those things."
Hayden defends middle order
Hayden addressed the lack of runs from Glenn Phillips’ bat. However, he thinks that Shahrukh and Tewatia should not be facing plenty of deliveries as their role is limited to the slog overs where they can take risks. He felt that the middle-order was doing a role of rescue rather than chasing down the target.
"The relevance behind balls faced when you look at, for example, someone like Glenn Phillips - his record in T20 cricket is an impressive strike rate and you'll take that all day long in the majority of games. However, you need an upfront batting effort where you consistently - as we usually do, having good problems to have - taking the lion's share of the batting," Hayden said.
"We shouldn't be allowing, you know, Tiwu [Tewatia] or Shahrukh Khan or these guys lots of balls. That's not their role. That's not what they train for. You know, we are a very good thinking batting unit. We're not a conservative batting unit. You don't go out and get 200s as often as we do being conservative. But they're a thinking batting unit and they're an adaptive batting unit. And what that means is that they've got their roles and they play them and today they simply didn't.
"So the worry isn't just today about the middle order. It'd be unfair to say that, you know, they were going to go on and score 13 runs an over because by that stage, I felt like as a batting coach, I was on the mast and the boat was sinking."
Do GT have like-for-like replacements for middle order?
Not just Shahrukh, but Tewatia is yet to cross the 20-run mark as well. Phillips’ best is 25 which came in GT’s campaign opener against Punjab Kings (PBKS).
GT do have backups in their lineup. They can bring in Kumar Kushagra and Anuj Rawat for the role Shahrukh and Tewatia have been playing. If not, at least replace one of them. Kushagra did make his debut for GT in the absence of skipper Gill, but as an opener, scoring 18 runs from 14 balls against Rajasthan Royals (RR). Also, if they move on Phillips, they can test Jason Holder in the middle order role. They also have the option of including South African youngster Connor Esterhuizen who dazzled in his debut T20I series against New Zealand.
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