That GT finished in third place on the league table was primarily down to Sai Sudharsan (759 runs), Gill (717) and Buttler (538) having great seasons, often leaving the middle order with not much to do. This season, Gill and Buttler are among the runs but have not been as prolific as in 2025, Sai Sudharsan hasn’t gotten going, and the middle order, which has got more hits as a result, has been out of their depth.
“We’re putting a lot of pressure on our middle order. When you look at the way that you go about the middle order, go about preparation, it’s vastly different to way the top three handle those preparations. They are batting for impact. You know, when you send Shahrukh Khan there – I don’t know the numbers – if you’re getting seven balls and you’re striking at 180, you’re having a hell of a season. See, those numbers seem ridiculous if you’re looking for aggregates and averages and all of those things.”
But Shahrukh has 35 runs from 25 balls so far this season. And Tewatia has 49 from 42.
Hayden, however, stressed that the two of them, as well as Phillips (67 from 54 balls), were struggling because the top three were off their best.
“We shouldn’t be allowing Rahul Tewatia or Shahrukh Khan lots of balls. That’s not their role. That’s not what they train for. You know, we are a very good thinking batting unit and an adaptive batting unit. And what that means is that they’ve got their roles and they play them and today they simply didn’t”
Matthew Hayden
“The relevance behind balls faced when you look at, for example, someone like Glenn Phillips – his record in T20 cricket is an impressive strike rate and you’ll take that all day long in the majority of games,” Hayden said. “However, you need an upfront batting effort where you consistently – as we usually do, having good problems to have – taking the lion’s share of the batting.
“We shouldn’t be allowing, you know, Tiwu [Tewatia] or Shahrukh Khan or these guys lots of balls. That’s not their role. That’s not what they train for. You know, we are a very good thinking batting unit. We’re not a conservative batting unit. You don’t go out and get 200s as often as we do being conservative. But they’re a thinking batting unit and they’re an adaptive batting unit. And what that means is that they’ve got their roles and they play them and today they simply didn’t.
“So the worry isn’t just today about the middle order. It’d be unfair to say that, you know, they were going to go on and score 13 runs an over because by that stage, I felt like as a batting coach, I was on the mast and the boat was sinking.”
“We were speaking about it off-air when we were watching the game and we were like, ‘who’s going to play like a [Tilak] Varma innings here now; who’s going to get a hundred from the position that they’re in right now?’ I didn’t feel like there was anybody that threatens that,” he said. “Current form, yeah. I’m not sure anyone’s getting a hundred. But if you put that into other teams or out through the IPL, you could name a guy. A guy’s coming in and he’s got the potential to do it. He’s got form or whatever he’s got, he’s got the shots. That middle order right now, I’m not sure.”
“So there is a straight No. 4 fix available if you need it in Kushagra, except there’s inexperience.”
