The law of averages in cricket, comes into play, when just about everything seems to be going right. Imagine the plight of GT skipper Shubman Gill, who had not set a foot wrong in IPL 2026, became the second highest run-scorer in IPL 2026, with 722 to his name; found a perfect delivery from Josh Hazlewood, that had his number. All this on the night of the final against RCB in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
Hazlewood sets up Shubman Gill in IPL 2026 final
Hazlewood bowls one short, Gill attempts his short arm jab, but mistimes it, and Rajat Patidar lines up well, to end his tournament with 10 against his name. It just seems, that this failure was to come in the summit clash, when Shubman Gill was coming on the back of a massive 102 against Rajasthan Royals, a couple of days back, that helped GT chase down 215; the highest ever total in playoffs history.
Gujarat were tested even further, with Sai Sudharsan departing in the very next Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s over, leaving the side in a lurch. That effectively meant, that the two players who scored almost 42% of the team’s runs in the season, got out inside the powerplay, only mounting troubles for the team.
But Gill had always been a little susceptible against Hazlewood. In the 41 deliveries against the pacer, the talented batter had only 59 runs, after getting out thrice. The average here is only 19.67, while the strike rate is only 143.9.
GT skipper deserves to be part of IND T20I setup
But minus this failed innings, agree or not, Shubman Gill has shown that he is a solid T20 player, and should be back in the India fold soon. Perhaps it was a signal, that after bringing him back before the T20 World Cup, he should not have been suddenly axed… and look now, what has he achieved in this IPL 2026.
In what turned out to be his 2nd best season ever, he scored 732 runs at an average of 45.75, and at a strike rate of 163.02. That also included a ton and six fifties. This is also the season, where he hit the most sixes — 33, joint highest achieved in 2023 as well. Not to forget, the SR is his highest ever in a year.
The list of achievements does not end there — the man managed to smash the fastest 100 of the playoffs ever, which was also the fastest ever by a GT batter, in 47 deliveries. He also became the first skipper in IPL to hit a ton in the playoffs. But amidst all his scoring, what was truly remarkable is, despite being sidelined from a format altogether, he managed to show a huge appetite to transform, and perform.
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