Have Gujarat Titans Qualified for Playoffs in IPL 2023?

Gujarat Titans continue to be at the top of Indian Premier League 2023 points table in spite of losing the recently concluded match against Mumbai Indians by 27 runs. A loss which had it in it to affect their morale, vice-captain Rashid Khan‘s career-best IPL knock saved the defending champions from a lot of embarrassment.

Chasing a mammoth 219-run target at the Wankhede Stadium tonight, GT were reduced to 55/5 in the eighth over. Coming in to bat at No. 8 in the 13th over, Khan didn’t let go of a batting opportunity with eight more overs left in the match.

As a result, the 24-year old player hit three fours and 10 sixes at a strike rate of 246.87 during the course of an eye-catching 79* (32). Khan, who has several bowling records to his name at a young age, became the first batter to hit 10 sixes whilst batting at No. 8 (or lower) in the history of all T20s.

The fact that Khan picked bowling figures of 4-0-30-4 which comprised wickets of specialist batters in a high-scoring contest calls for one of the best all-round performances in this format.

Have Gujarat Titans Qualified for Playoffs in IPL 2023?

Having played 12 IPL 2023 matches thus far, Gujarat have won eight and lost four matches. With two more matches to be played, it is all but obvious that Hardik Pandya and his men will be qualifying for the playoffs this season.

In the general run of things, eight wins are enough for a team to qualify for the playoffs in an IPL season. Even if Titans lose their remaining matches against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Ahmedabad and Bengaluru respectively, they should be able to play the next round.

In such a situation, the worst that can happen for them is a demotion among the Top Four teams (depending on the results of other matches). Assuming that it happens, we could see them participating in the Eliminator instead of Qualifier 1 in Chennai later this month.

UPDATE: Titans have become the first IPL 2023 team to qualify for the playoffs after defeating Sunrisers by 34 runs in Ahmedabad.