Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya's Defending Champions Enter IPL 2023 As Title Contenders

Having achieved the ultimate glory of winning the IPL title in their maiden appearance last year, Hardik Pandya's Gujarat Titans will aim to replicate all the right moves they made to lift the trophy with the competition expanded to 10 teams. Gujarat Titans was the best team in IPL 2022 for not just lifting the trophy but for executing a perfectly-planned campaign among all competitors, winning 10 out of 14 league games and finishing at the top of the points table with the best outcome (20 points).

Since last year, having led Gujarat Titans to the title win, Pandya's stature has grown with his ascendency to India's permanent captaincy job in T20Is and even a look-in in ODIs, while their young batter Shubman Gill has established himself as a natural pick at least in two of the three international formats.

Both Pandya and Gill led Gujarat Titans with the bat, finishing with 487 and 483 runs respectively to top the charts for their side while two of the best in business, Mohammad Shami (20 wickets) and Rashid Khan (19), were their primary attacking weapons with the ball.

Even though Gujarat Titans have let go of the express pacer Lockie Ferguson, his absence should not rock the ship which also consists of Ireland pacer Josh Little, West Indies' Alzarri Joseph, Shivam Mavi, Yash Dayal and a few more.

Strengths: Credit must be given to the coaching staff led by former India pacer Ashish Nehra for establishing camaraderie between the players and most importantly, clarity of their roles.

In the lead-up to IPL 2023, both non-regular members of Gujarat Titans, Mavi and R Sai Kishore, highlighted that knowing their roles and executing them was among the biggest reasons for GT's successful campaign last year.

With the firepower of