Gujarat Titans (GT) have been the most successful IPL team since they debuted in 2022 and came within one ball of winning two titles in a row. However, since 2024, they have been a middling team, a decent notch below the top two of Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
The one obvious change, which brought around much consternation in more than one team and one city, was the exit of their captain Hardik Pandya, but this is not even about the captain. They are still well led. It is about the player they lost when they lost Hardik. In their whole existence, Hardik and Rashid Khan are the only two players from GT who have scored at least 100 runs and bowled at least 120 balls in a season.
As you will appreciate, these aren’t even exacting standards for an allrounder. Over the years, GT have had only two players even in a net cast as wide as this. The impact player, and a preference for bowling-friendly tracks, have somehow papered over this absence of someone remotely resembling an allrounder, but if you consistently keep playing with less depth than others, it starts to show in the decisions you make, in the risks you take (and don’t), and in the results. Despite the impact player rule, there have been times in the last two years when Rashid has batted at No. 7, which is not ideal even in international cricket when you don’t have the luxury of the impact player.
It is quite a surprise that a side so in need of an allrounder took as long as GT did to bring Jason Holder into the playing XI. The way GT play their T20 cricket, you would assume they would be a spiritual home for Holder. GT coach Ashish Nehra is well known for avoiding complications. He still values the ability to hit the good length on demand over fancy variations. His bowlers set up matches for his batters, who have the luxury of taking fewer risks than others.
So, as a structure, GT desperately needed an allrounder. As a bowler, they needed a fast bowler who had been forged in Test cricket. Just like Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada, who have both been bowling through the powerplay in recent matches.
When it comes to just holding a good length, even some of Holder’s more established West Indies compatriots don’t come close to him. His accuracy and his height, plus his hitting prowess, made him and GT a perfect match for each other, and brought him out of a two-year IPL exile. GT perhaps under-rated Holder’s batting and tried Glenn Phillips first, but once Prasidh Krishna went off the boil, the core of their philosophy was under attack. They had no choice but to reinforce the bowling.
In only four matches in the IPL in the last three years, Holder has used his Test skills to earn seven wickets and be a critical part of three wins.
“To be fair, that is what we train for,” Holder said when asked how difficult it is to keep hitting the good length when batters are coming at you as they do in T20 cricket. “For me, personally, it is what I spend a lot of time on. I feel it is the hardest length to hit no matter the wicket, flat or placid…” You could be listening to Nehra himself.
Holder hasn’t yet shown his full range with the bat although he did start with a quick 23 off ten balls. He is a much better T20 batter than one who is given a specific entry point as he has been in these four matches. In Holder’s first match, the third wicket fell in the 18th over and out he went, but since then, he has batted behind Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan and Nishant Sindhu.
The competitor that he is, despite winning two successive Player-of-the-Match awards, Holder is hurting a little that he had these two opportunities to formally establish himself as the allrounder but couldn’t. “I am probably a little disappointed that I didn’t finish the last two games,” Holder said. “But I am still in a good frame of mind. That’s the most important thing for me. Just keeping a fresh mind, staying positive, understanding my role, and just trying to execute when called upon. Just try to make an impact and execute as well as I can under pressure.”
Having not been selected in West Indies’ Test side for the last couple of years gave him, Holder said, an opportunity to train for T20 in specific ways, but he knows this IPL comeback for him has come around through skills acquired in those Test nets. It will be a nice little turn of events if this Test-inspired comeback in the IPL ends up leading him back into Test cricket.
Holder himself is just a call away. “I would love to still play some Test-match cricket,” he said. “I haven’t yet closed that chapter.”
ESPNCricinfo
