The quality of a player can be judged upon how he is performing under pressure and Rashid Khan, time and again, has proven himself as our talisman. Currently the Purple Cap holder in TATA IPL 2023, Rashid Khan produced a performance of a lifetime against Mumbai Indians was extremely unfortunate to not end up on the winning side. 

Our Assistant Coach Aashish Kapoor rated him as a quality all-rounder in T20 cricket, also analysing his bowling strategies which wary depending on the wicket. 

“We all know he is a top-class player. We look at him as a leg-spinner but he has proven himself as a top all-rounder in this format. He didn’t bat a lot before this match, this was the first time he got a decent crack and he almost pulled it off. If we had a few good overs up front, we could’ve come a lot closer,” Aashish Kapoor said in the post match conference.  

Talking about his bowling exploits, he said, “Rashid depends mostly on his speed and length, which is quite different from other spinners. He is able to skid the balls, but he knows when to extract turn depending on the pitch available. His main weapon is the googly. He analyses the tracks before the match and sees what are the lengths he must bowl today.” 

With over 400 runs scored on the day, it wasn’t the best of days for the bowlers in both teams. However, Mumbai Indians managed to edge the contest by 27 runs. Kapoor went on to add that it was not an easy day for bowlers and margins of error were pretty small.  

“The kind of wicket we get in Wankhede, I don’t think the target was impossible. This is one of the better wickets with good bounce. Even if the bowler errs by a fraction he gets hit for boundaries. Although we didn’t get a good start, we still managed 191,” he explained. 

Talking about the points table, he said, “We are all very close to each other right now. With just two games to know, it is difficult to predict. The way the table is, I think we have enough points to qualify. It has been such a close tournament, I think the fourth team will qualify with 14 points. Even the ninth and 10th teams are within reach. We have to keep winning games, that’s it.” 

Gujarat Titans will next take the field against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Monday.