Gujarat Titans’ (GT) Director of Cricket Vikram Solanki reflected on his side’s defeat in the IPL 2026 final in Ahmedabad on Sunday, acknowledging that they fell short in key moments while also crediting Royal Challengers Bengaluru for executing better on the night.
“First and foremost congratulations to RCB, as far as our campaign is concerned we’re immensely proud as a group of what what we’ve achieved, there’s no question we would have liked to have gone one step further, there are a lot of other teams that would have taken our place as well.”
“That said, as far as the game today, I think we were probably 20-25 runs short, but it was exceptional to see the fight and the hunger the guys showed to bring that game to close to the finish. Had we got 25 and these are all ifs and buts, of course, the fact is that we’ve been beaten by a side today, and my most sort of prevalent thought is to congratulate RCB,” Solanki said after GT’s loss on Sunday.
He added that the contest ultimately had to be viewed in its simplest terms, despite the fine margins and tactical discussions around it.
“So if I, the number of times I’ve had to answer that question, quite seriously, we’ve just we’ve played a final, you know this this notion of top two, top three, we’ve played a final.”
GT arrived in Ahmedabad on the eve of the IPL 2026 final after being delayed by stormy weather in Chandigarh, with their travel schedule compressed into less than 24 hours before the summit clash against RCB.
Addressing whether travel and scheduling had any bearing on the result, Solanki acknowledged the challenge but refused to frame it as an excuse for the defeat.
“Unfortunately, sir, I can’t control the weather. If the weather means we have to land late, then there’s nothing we can do about it. The number of games in a short number of days is challenging, of course, it is at the end of a campaign, but I’m not going to lean on that at all,” he said.
According to reports, GT were forced into a delayed departure from Chandigarh on Saturday after stormy conditions across north-west India disrupted flight operations, meaning they reached Ahmedabad only late in the night and had minimal time to prepare for the final.
On the decision to promote Nishant Sindhu up the order, Solanki described it as a judgement call made in the flow of the game rather than a pre-planned move. Sindhu contributed 20 off 18 balls.
“Nishant Sindhu, that was a bit of a judgement call, Ashish (Nehra) made that call to send him in at three at that time,” he said.
“We didn’t really discuss it, but Ashish makes those calls now and again if the captain’s around in conjunction with the captain.”
