Gujarat Titans‘ director of cricket, Vikram Solanki, credited the team for their campaign in the 2026 Indian Premier League despite their five-wicket loss in the final against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
“I’ll begin by congratulating RCB. They’ve had an outstanding campaign,” Solanki said. “They finished at the top of the table in the league stage and then went on to beat us twice, so we must take that on board. As far as our campaign is concerned, we’re immensely proud as a group of what we’ve achieved. There’s no question that we would have liked to have gone one step further, but there are a lot of other teams that would have gladly taken our place as well,” Solanki said, speaking in the post-match press conference, as reported by ESPNcricinfo.
The Titans played three games in five days, including their Qualifier 1 loss to the same opposition, and saw their travel to Ahmedabad delayed by a storm. Solanki stated that the fatigue should not be used as an excuse for their loss and acknowledged they were outplayed in the summit clash.
“The number of games in a short period of time is challenging,” he said. “Of course it is at the end of a campaign, but I’m not going to lean on that at all. The fact is that RCB have beaten us today, and we must be strong enough to hold our heads high and be proud of the campaign that we’ve put together, yet also be gracious enough to congratulate RCB. So, I don’t want to take away from the fact that RCB have won by simply saying, ‘oh, we’ve had this number of games in such a short space of time and we’re fatigued’. That’s not really what we’re about,” he stated.
‘A bit of a judgment call’ – Solanki on Nishant Sindhu’s promotion to number 3
One of the key moments in the game came when both openers, Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan, were dismissed in the powerplay. Gill was the first to fall, to the bowling of Josh Hazlewood. That move saw all-rounder Nishant Sindhu promoted up the order to number 3 ahead of Jos Buttler. Solanki stated that it was a decision made by the coach, Ashish Nehra, who makes similar decisions very often. The move though did not provide results as Sindhu was just able to manage an 18-ball 20.
“That was a bit of a judgment call,” he said. “Ashish [Nehra, the head coach] made that call to send him in at No. 3 at that time. We didn’t really discuss it, but Ashish makes those calls now and again, if the captain is around, in conjunction with the captain,” he said.
Solanki was expressive of his annoyance at being asked about the over-reliance of the team on their opening pair. Gill and Sudharsan both have scored over 700 runs in the 2026 season and have done most of the heavy-lifting for the Titans with the bat. Â
“The number of times I’ve had to answer that question… quite seriously, we’ve just played a final. This notion of [over-reliance on] the top two or top three… we’ve played a final. I think you should accept the fact that we’ve had a reasonable campaign, and the details of that are there for everyone to see – the number of runs scored and so on,” he stated.
