Gujarat Titans pace bowler Mohit Sharma admitted it was difficult to replace a bowler of the caliber of Mohammed Shami as his team succumbed to a massive 63-run defeat at the hands of reigning IPL champions Chennai Super Kings. India’s leading pacer Shami is sitting out the IPL as he recovers from ankle surgery. He is expected to make his comeback later this year with the home Test series against Bangladesh after missing the five-Test series against England. Shami will also miss the T20 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by the West Indies and the USA in June.
“Every team is bound to miss a bowler like Shami and you can’t replace him with anyone. But injuries are uncontrollable and you have to see how to move on from that,” said Sharma, who played for CSK between 2013 and 2015. and has been with the Titans since 2022, during the post-game press conference.
“As for GT, it is the first year for Spencer (Johnson) and Azmatullah (Omarzai). They have not played much cricket yet, so we have to be patient with them and not become too results-oriented.
“We shouldn’t worry about the leaked runs or the outcome of the match, but about how successful we are with our plans and how we are working on them backstage. These things would come in handy in the second half (of the event) ” opined Sharma.
CSK posted a massive 206 for six with openers Ruturaj Gaikwad (36) and Rachin Ravindra (46) being the stars alongside Shivam Dube (51). GT bowlers suffered a lot, with Umesh Yadav going for 27 in two overs, while crafty Afghan top spinner Rashid Khan went for 49 in four overs, although he took a couple of wickets.
Sharma added that CSK milk runs in powerplay also contributed to the big loss.
“Not much difference (in CSK’s strategy). It used to be the same when I played for CSK and usually we tried to make the most of the powerplay overs,” he said.
CSK were 69 for 1 after powerplay overs.
“We knew it was going to be a similar scenario, especially with Rachin (Ravindra’s) batting lately. However, we failed to execute our plans properly and also failed to estimate the width and length during our bowling.
“We failed to execute our plans properly. We started bowling the slower players too early and too wide off stump, allowing them to score freely. It always happens that the plans are not executed properly every time.
“But it’s a big tournament and we have plenty of time to go back to the drawing board, correct our mistakes and start again.
“We had a target of 200 as a par score on this wicket, and CSK played exactly as we had imagined. They were on course for 225-230 before settling for 206, but as we failed to execute our plans , we believed we gave away 15-20 extra runs.” Sharma also defended the visitors’ decision to bowl first, stating that dew is always a factor in night games, although interestingly there was hardly any dew on Tuesday evening.
“Don’t think the pitch has a role to play. If we win the toss and decide to bowl, it’s usually because we know the dew can play a role later in the match.
“But there was no dew (Tuesday). As usual we decided to bowl and restrict them to a par total, while dew would have been an extra positive for us.
“If the wicket had been drier, CSK would have gone in with two spinners. But if the (GT) pacers had bowled in the right areas, it would have been difficult for them to hit,” he reflected.
“I won’t say we failed to score runs, but credit to CSK’s bowlers.”
Despite losing by 63 runs, Mohit refused to blame the batters for the poor show. CSK bowlers executed their plan to perfection to restrict GT to 143/8 with Sai Sudharsan (37) being GT’s top scorer.
“I won’t say we failed to score runs, but all credit to the CSK bowlers for their brilliant bowling. Deepak (Chahar) started well, and ultimately it all comes down to the number of variations you possess and when and how to use them.
“Don’t think it was a pressure scenario for us. The wicket was good, and 200 was an achievable total here.
“But the wickets we lost initially, which led to lack of partnerships, followed by CSK bowlers bowling the right length, led to our inability to increase the run rate, and we started trailing in every over,” signed he off.
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