Big picture: The best two teams face off
Gujarat Titans (GT) will be thrilled to play the IPL final at their home ground in Ahmedabad. Just that they will not be able to get there till deep into the night on Saturday. Thunderstorms in Chandigarh delayed the team from flying out, meaning they wouldn’t even have spent 24 hours in the place where they’ll have to find a way to win an IPL title.Speaking of which, once upon a time – and for a very long time – IPL finals used to be held at the home venue of the previous year’s champions. So Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) could have been the ones looking forward to a bit of home advantage. But something, somewhere went wrong. And now it is GT who go in with that ace up their sleeve.And as much as the old rules do not apply to this RCB – not when their batting line-up dovetails so wonderfully, and their new-ball bowlers have been so devastating – there is some small precedent to consider. They lost to GT in Ahmedabad in the league stage, bowled out for 155. They’ve won only three of their seven away or neutral games in IPL 2026. All of that can be tossed into the wayside if any of their match-winners come off. Five of them did – the entire top five – in Dharamsala just a few days ago to put up the highest score ever seen in the playoffs. From going 18 years without a title, RCB could win two back-to-back. For the last eight straight IPLs, the team winning Qualifier 1 has gone on to become champion.
GT’s campaign has been built on the hard work of Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Siraj; in particular the unstinting way they attack oppositions in the powerplay. Both quicks have been encouraged to go pace-on. Both quicks have been remarkable at assessing the vulnerabilities of specific batters. Both quicks have the potential to break the game early. GT have a strike rate of 16 this season, the best of all the teams (at an economy of 9.49) and it gets better when they play at home – 13.5 (economy of 8.72). They’ve converted a fourth playoff appearance in five years into a third final in five years. A second title in five years is well within reach.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru WLWWW (last five matches, most recent first)
Gujarat Titans WLWLW
In the spotlight: Tim David and Jason Holder
Three of Tim David’s last five innings have ended in single-digit scores and a strike rate under 100. You wouldn’t qualify that as a slump though, given his innings against Punjab Kings during the same sequence. He was 2 off two at the start of the 17th over and finished 28 off 12. David just needs to connect one ball to send several out of the ground.Jason Holder has been an impeccable addition to the GT line-up, his bowling enabling them to frontload their Test-quality fast bowlers and retain flexible use of Rashid Khan. On top of that, Holder himself has picked up 17 wickets at an economy rate of just 7.54. The extra bounce that he generates, even on Indian pitches, has been telling.
Team news: Salt to return?
RCB will likely bring Phil Salt back in if he’s ready to go but even if not, Venkatesh Iyer has filled in very nicely.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (probable): 1 Virat Kohli, 2 Venkatesh Iyer/Phil Salt, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt), 5 Krunal Pandya, 6 Tim David, 7 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 8 Romario Shepherd, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Rasikh Salam, 12 Jacob Duffy/Suyash Sharma
GT have had the middle-order question thrown at them over and over and it will be done one last time. In Qualifier 1, when Shubman Gill and B Sai Sudharsan failed, they lost. Badly.
Gujarat Titans (probable): 1 Shubman Gill (capt), 2 B Sai Sudharsan, 3 Jos Buttler (wk), 4 Washington Sundar, 5 Nishant Sindhu, 6 Jason Holder, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 R Sai Kishore, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Prasidh Krishna, 12 Mohammed Siraj
This final will be played on the same pitch as the last final. It has already been used twice this season, including the league game between these two sides. Ahmedabad tends to favour the chasing teams. Four of the last six finals have also been won by the chasing team.
