Gujarat Titans (GT) players were stranded on the side of the road for nearly an hour as their team bus caught fire on the way back to hotel room. After the defeat in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 final to Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, the Shubman Gill-led side faced a setback off the field as they had a scare on the bus. Days later, GT’s star overseas batter Jos Buttler on the ‘For the love of cricket’ podcast with former teammate Stuart Board, revealed how their disappointing evening got worse with their team bus going up in smoke.
"Always going to be a winner and a loser, so someone has to be the loser. But unfortunately it was us and our night was sort of summed up by two in the morning on the bus home,” Buttler recalled.
“The boys at the back had started smelling smoke and we all got off the bus and stood by the side of the road. Well, I'm sure the RCB party was in full flow. Our bus was going up in smoke along with our not what you need. Our dreams of winning the title. So disappointing and it'll take a while to get over it, to be honest.”
The player were stranded on the side of the road and some even posed for pictures, including Mohammed Siraj. Fortunately, none of the players or the support staff suffered any injuries. An alternate bus was arranged as disappointed players waited for nearly an hour.
Buttler gutted to lose final
Buttler also said that he was ‘gutted’ to lose the final by seven wickets. He pointed out that it is not every season a team manages to reach the final. He also opened up about the decision to hold him back and send Nishant Sindhu to bat at no.3. He revealed that head coach Ashish Nehra made the call as he wanted top-order batter Sindhu to get into the game. The wicketkeeper-batter said that he had a plan on how to approach the innings but couldn’t execute it. He lauded RCB left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya for outfoxing him by getting him stumped out for 19 off 23 deliveries.