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It will be Hardik Pandya versus Rohit Sharma when Gujarat Titans (GT) take on Mumbai Indians (MI) in Qualifier 2 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday, May 26.
This is a winner-takes-all clash as the victorious team will set up a date with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Sunday, May 28.
Gujarat Titans were the standout team in the league stage. They topped the points table with 20 points, winning 10 and losing only four of their 14 matches. However, they ran into a clinical CSK in Qualifier 1 and eventually ended up going down by 15 runs.
Bowling first, GT did reasonably well to restrict Chennai to 172/7. However, their batters struggled and Gujarat only managed 157 in the chase.
On the other hand, Mumbai Indians almost gained a backdoor entry into the playoffs. Having beaten SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) by eight wickets in their last league, they needed a favor from Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), which they got as Faf du Plessis and Co. went down to GT by six wickets in their final league match.
MI then thrashed Lucknow by 81 runs in the Eliminator to keep their hopes of winning a sixth IPL crown alive.
Skippers Hardik and Rohit will have to play pivotal roles to augment their team’s chances of winning Friday’s match and booking their place in the final.
On that note, we do a comparative analysis of the two leaders who will feature in Qualifier 2.
Hardik or Rohit - the tactically better leader?
This is an interesting one for Hardik is known as a street-smart captain and has made many innovative calls during his stint as a leader, both for Gujarat Titans and for India.
On the other hand, Rohit is often referred to as a calm skipper, who allows his players their space and encourages them to perform.
IPL 2023 has seen a slight variation with regard to the stereotypical descriptions of the two captains.
While Hardik has continued to make offbeat moves, some of them have bordered on the bizarre, lacking cricketing sense. Take the case of the shuffle in the batting order. There have been just too many of them, and in almost every game, resulting in a sense of chaos.
Vijay Shankar batted at No. 3 in GT’s six-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their last league clash. He contributed a significant 53 off 35. Yet, in Qualifier 1 against CSK, Shankar walked into bat at No.6.
After the loss, Shankar launched an unconvincing defense of the move and said:
“Actually, if you see overall in this season, all the batters have played in different positions. So it is not just this game. I think that was the strength of our batting unit as well. Whoever went in different situations, we were able to adapt to it and get runs for the team.
“When you lose a wicket and when you lose a game, things will look odd that we have changed a lot and all. But we have been playing like this overall right from game one until now.”
In contrast, Rohit has won some plaudits for making a few shrewd moves. His tactics in the Eliminator against LSG particularly stood out.
The decision to send in Nehal Wadhera as an Impact Player although MI were batting first proved to be a masterstroke.
His advice to Akash Madhwal to go around the wicket to Nicholas Pooran also culminated in a golden duck for the in-form Lucknow batter.
Praising Rohit’s tactics, Indian cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar told India Today:
“Madhwal got Ayush Badoni, bowling over the wicket. He then went round the wicket to the left-hander Nicholas Pooran. Not a lot of bowlers necessarily do that because if they get their rhythm going bowling over the wicket, they will stick to over the wicket even it's a left-hander, trying to leave the left-hander. But he went around the wicket and produced an absolute gem of a delivery and got the man out.
“What I am saying is Rohit Sharma did not get the credit for telling Madhwal to bowl round the wicket. The captaincy situation as well. Remember, Nehal Wadhera was used as an impact player batting first. Teams generally don't use batters as Impact Player when they are batting first. But Rohit used Nehwal when MI were batting first against LSG. So please give him credit for that as well."
When it comes to tactics, Rohit has had the upper hand over Hardik so far in IPL 2023.
Which batter is leading from the front?
Unfortunately for both Mumbai and Gujarat, neither Rohit nor Hardik have done too well for their respective sides in this regard.
In 15 matches, the MI skipper has scored 324 at an average of 21.60 and a strike rate of 133.33. The 36-year-old has two fifties to his credit, but hasn’t looked convincing with the willow and has been guilty of throwing his wicket away on a number of occasions.
Hardik has produced similar numbers to Rohit. In 14 matches, he has 297 runs to his name at an average of 27 and a strike rate of 130.26 . He too has only two half-centuries to show for his efforts and hasn’t bowled as well lately.
All that will be forgotten, though, if one of them lifts their game and produces a captain’s performance with the willow in Qualifier 2.
