GT squad rating after IPL 2026 auction: Middle-order weakness persists for Shubman Gill & Co.

Gujarat Titans (GT) had a gaping middle-order hole in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. Despite that, the 2022 champions made it to the Eliminator. Their top three of Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill, and Jos Buttler combined scored 1947 runs. But that was the issue; it was them or nothing.

Coming into the IPL 2026 auction, this was the issue GT had to sort out. There wasn’t any guarantee that Sudharsan, Gill, and Buttler would again score over 500+ individually. You had to reinforce the middle order. Let’s find out whether GT managed to do that and how good their squad is after the auction.

Rating the Gujarat Titans squad after the IPL 2026 auction

In some ways, GT had already addressed its weakness prior to the auction. In November, it came out that GT head coach Ashish Nehra was against a potential trade for Washington with the Chennai Super Kings and was going to promote the all-rounder to number four.

This came after he featured in just 6 of the 15 matches in IPL 2025. We still don’t know whether this move will work, but Washington did well in the limited opportunities he got last season.

Since Rahul Tewatia’s performance wasn’t that great and they released the likes of Dasun Shanaka and Mahipal Lomror, GT needed some batting reinforcement. Well, they haven’t really done that.

The only batter GT purchased in Abu Dhabi was Tom Banton. The Englishman can play in the middle but generally bats in the top order. They already had Glenn Phillips, and while he got injured last year, prior to that, GT didn’t give him a chance to play.

Tewatia averaged just 12.37 last season and didn’t play one match for Haryana in the 2025-26 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT). Meanwhile, Shahrukh was dropped by Kerala midway through the tournament.

GT can play Banton over Phillips over Kumar Kushagra or Nishant Sindhu or Anuj Rawat instead of Tewatia or Shahrukh, but overall, this still doesn’t look like a winning combination. It’s fascinating that they let David Miller go to Delhi Capitals for just INR 2 crore despite ending the auction with one overseas slot, but that’s where GT stands.

Their top-order batting or bowling, both spin and pace, isn’t an issue, but they still have the same issue he had last year. For that reason, InsideSport gives GT an 8/10 for their squad for the IPL 2026.

Strongest Gujarat Titans Playing XII for IPL 2026

No.PlayerBackup Player

1	Shubman Gill (c)
2	Sai Sudharsan
3	Jos Buttler (wk)	Kumar Kushagra (wk)/ Tom Banton
4	Washington Sundar	Nishant Sindhu
5	Glenn Phillips	Jayant Yadav/ Anuj Rawat (wk)
6	Rahul Tewatia/ Shahrukh Khan	Rahul Tewatia/ Shahrukh Khan
7	Jason Holder	Luke Wood
8	Rashid Khan
9	Sai Kishore	Manav Suthar
10	Mohammed Siraj	Kagiso Rabada
11	Prasidh Krishna	Gurnoor Brar
Impact Sub	Arshad Khan/ Ashok Sharma/ Prithviraj Yarra/ Ishant Sharma

Gujarat Titans full squad for IPL 2026

Anuj Rawat (wk), Glenn Phillips (wk), Gurnoor Brar, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Jos Buttler (wk), Kagiso Rabada, Kumar Kushagra, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, Arshad Khan, Nishant Sindhu, Prasidh Krishna, R Sai Kishore, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, B Sai Sudharsan, M Shahrukh Khan, Shubman Gill (c), Washington Sundar, Ashok Sharma, Jason Holder, Tom Banton, Prithviraj Yarra, Luke Wood

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