"We don't consider Kagiso Rabada an established death bowler" - Aakash Chopra on Gujarat Titans' potential challenges in IPL 2025

Former India player Aakash Chopra has picked death bowling as one of the Gujarat Titans' (GT) potential challenges in IPL 2025. He also pointed out that Kagiso Rabada, their big-ticket overseas buy, is not a renowned death bowler.

GT bought Rabada for ₹10.75 crore at the IPL 2025 auction. Mohammed Siraj (₹12.25 crore), Prasidh Krishna (₹9.50 crore), Gerald Coetzee (₹2.40 crore), Mohd Arshad Khan (₹1.30 crore), Gurnoor Singh Brar (₹1.30 crore), Ishant Sharma (₹75 lakh), and Kulwant Khejroliya (₹30 lakh) were their other prominent seam-bowling picks at the mega auction.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel 'Aakash Chopra,' the former India opener opined that death bowling could be a challenge for the Gujarat Titans in IPL 2025.

"Do they have established death bowlers? We don't consider Kagiso Rabada an established death bowler. We feel he becomes slightly expensive there. Gerald Coetzee is the same story. He proves expensive at the death. Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj - all of them can be expensive at the death," he said (8:45).

While acknowledging that the Titans have excellent new-ball bowlers, Chopra added that none of them are proficient at the death.

"So they have many good options with the new ball. The new ball will move as well and they will pick up wickets, they will be very impressive, but you might find a potential weakness at the death in their team. There isn't a specialist death bowler. It could be a slight challenge," he observed.

Kagiso Rabada didn't have a great run in IPL 2024, picking up 11 wickets in as many games at an economy rate of 8.85. While Prasidh Krishna was ruled out of last year's tournament due to an injury, Mohammed Siraj's 15 wickets in 14 games came at an economy rate of 9.18.

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"They have a slightly inexperienced and untested middle order" - Aakash Chopra on the Gujarat Titans' other potential challenge in IPL 2025

Rahul Tewatia was among the players retained by the Gujarat Titans ahead of the IPL 2025 auction. [P/C: iplt20.com]

In the same video, Aakash Chopra chose middle-order batting as the Gujarat Titans' other potential challenge in IPL 2025.

"If the top is so good, they have a slightly inexperienced and untested middle order, where you will find Mahipal Lomror, Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, Glenn Phillips/Sherfane Rutherford, and you start thinking that they are not that explosive," he said.

The cricketer-turned-commentator added that the Titans' middle order is not as formidable as that of the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and the Mumbai Indians (MI).

"When we were talking about LSG yesterday, they have (Rishabh) Pant, (Nicholas) Pooran and (David) Miller - wow. We spoke about Mumbai before that, and there we saw Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya and Naman Dhir - very, very good. The middle order here doesn't give you that kind of confidence," Chopra elaborated.

Aakash Chopra opined that one among Shubman Gill, Jos Buttler, and Sai Sudharsan will likely look to bat till the 15th over for the Gujarat Titans in IPL 2025. He added that the middle-order batters can then go hell for leather as they have the hitting ability.