Gujarat Titans haven’t been able to defend an Indian Premier League title against Chennai Super Kings but have surely bagged several awards at the end of their second successful season in a row. Although nothing matches the joy of becoming champions, Titans’ players winning these awards is a testament to the brand of cricket they’ve played throughout the last two months.
That said, their fans are expected to be dejected primarily due to the fact that they ended up on the losing side in spite of the presence of highest run-scorer and highest wicket-taker at their disposal. If truth be told, not one but the top three bowlers on the second list belonged to GT in a rare-case scenario.
Shubman Gill, who had never scored more than 500 runs in a season until IPL 2023, registered a record-breaking season on the back of amassing 890 runs across 17 innings at an average and strike rate of 59.33 and 157.80 respectively. Gill, who scored three centuries and four half-centuries this season, has scored the second-highest number of runs in an IPL season.
Speaking of their bowlers, pacers Mohammed Shami and Mohit Sharma and vice-captain Rashid Khan joined hands to dismiss as many as 82 batters throughout the tournament. Shami, who bagged the Purple Cap, finished the season with 28 wickets at an average of 18.64, an economy rate of 8.03 and a strike rate of 13.92.
Returning to the IPL after four years and playing 14 matches in a season after a six-year gap, Sharma picked 27 wickets at an average of 13.37, an economy rate of 8.17 and a strike rate of 9.81. Much like him, Khan also picked the same number of wickets at at 20.44, 8.23 and 14.88 respectively.
The fact that Sharma played three matches less than the other two and was their designated death-overs specialist speaks highly of the kind of season he’s had.
IPL Man of the Tournament 2023
While either of these four players could have been declared as the Player of the Tournament, it was Gill who pinned down the trio of his bowling teammates to win the series award for the first time in his sixth IPL season.
Having become only the fourth batter to score more than 800 runs in an IPL season, the 23-year old player also became the third batter to score three centuries in one season. Not surprisingly, Gill highlighted scoring hundreds as the crowning point of his career-best season while speaking to Star Sports Network during the post-match presentation ceremony.
“Means a lot. The hard work that I’ve put in is going in the right direction for me. I think it was very important to start well and I started well. By the business end of the tournament, I converted the starts into big ones. I practiced a lot of [sixes] and I changed my technique a little bit for the death [overs]. The SRH hundred was about control and the Mumbai [century] was knowing the situation and taking on the opposition.”
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