3 things GT need to do right to beat MI in IPL 2025 Eliminator ft. Rashid Khan 

The Gujarat Titans (GT) have been an all-or-nothing franchise up until this point in the Indian Premier League (IPL). They finished in the top two in each of their first two seasons, and were not even close to making it to the playoffs in the next. This time around, in IPL 2025, they are in an unfamiliar territory in the form of the infamous Eliminator.

GT's opponents, Mumbai Indians (MI), are well-versed with such situations, and will be up for the challenge. Both franchises have been severely hit with unavailability issues, and will rely heavily on their temporary replacements to keep them alive in the campaign.

GT are without their two premium overseas players in Jos Buttler and Kagiso Rabada, and have named one replacement in the form of Kusal Mendis.

MI, on the other hand, saw three players (Will Jacks, Corbin Bosch, and Ryan Rickelton) depart for national duty. The five-time winners have made three signings (Charith Asalanka, Richard Gleeson, and Jonny Bairstow) to replace them for the playoffs.

The IPL 2025 Eliminator is scheduled to be held on Friday, May 30 in Mullanpur. On that note, let us take a look at three things GT need to do right to beat MI.

#1 Rashid Khan cannot afford to bowl stray deliveries

It has been a long, long time since the IPL has seen the best of Rashid Khan, as injuries and workload have rendered him a shadow of his former self. With nine wickets in 14 matches so far at an average of 53.67 and an economy of 9.47 in IPL 2025, this is the Afghanistan spinner's worst campaign by a long shot.

But all said and done, he is a match-winner who is still in the playing XI for that very reason. If there is a time for him to turn up, it has to be now, with GT having their backs to the wall. Rashid Khan has prided himself on his accuracy in the past, and that element has been entirely missing from his arsenal this season.

Rashid Khan is not someone one would normally associate with doling out freebies during his spell, but that has been the story of the campaign. Unable to hit the ideal length on a consistent basis, and not getting the trademark zip off the surface, has made him a very easy target for the batters. The deliveries that do not come out of hand as intended are usually too full or too short, both of which the modern-day batters dispatch with ease.

He has bowled with an economy of over nine runs, seven times already this season, which tells that he has not been able to put a batter under pressure for too long, and has not built enough momentum, which used to reward him with wickets in the past.

If GT have to ease pressure on their middle order and contain the explosive MI batting unit, Rashid Khan must simply come to the party, there are no two ways about this. An influential spell by him could be something that might negate Kagiso Rabada and Jos Buttler's absences for GT.

The margin for error is very less for Rashid, considering that the oppositions have several good players of spin, starting with Suryakumar Yadav.

#2 Gerald Coetzee has to support the GT spinners in the middle phase by using his pace and bounce

GT have played the majority of their season without Kagiso Rabada, a phase during which Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna carried the pace bowling unit. While Krishna continues to be functioning at a high level, Siraj has just tapered off a bit. However, if there is something for the new ball like there was during Qualifier 1, Siraj will be the first to take advantage of that.

With left-arm pacer Arshad Khan also handy with the new ball, GT are arguably set for the powerplay. But their issues begin to unravel in the middle overs. Rashid Khan is struggling to make an impact, Sai Kishore has a tricky record against Suryakumar Yadav, but positive ones against Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya.

But he will need support from the other end as well, which is where Gerald Coetzee's overs might come in handy. If the conditions permit, like it did in Qualifier 1, the Proteas pacer's ability to hit the deck hard and extract extra bounce could come in handy, proving to be a buffer and not letting the batters settle against the spinners.

Moreover, Coetzee has dismissed Tilak Varma twice in five outings, and has conceded only six runs off 13 deliveries against Hardik Pandya, while dismissing him once.

#3 Gill and Sudharsan have to thread the needle against MI's pace attack to protect the middle order

Jos Buttler at No.3 was the most lucrative cushion to fall back on for GT, the one which allowed Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan to express themselves and play at their own tempo.

Although the middle order have gotten a bit of game time over the course of the last few matches with the top order slowly waning, they are still not equipped to deal with a crisis, that too under extreme pressure. Buttler's replacement, Kusal Mendis, is a massive hit-or-miss call, leaving a lot of responsibility on Sherfane Rutherford and Shahrukh Khan.

How much of the load the fragile middle order has to take all boils down to how Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan start off the innings. The left-handed batter has already been dismissed by Trent Boult twice this season, and cannot afford a third entry on the list.

PBKS' innings was more or less done inside the powerplay in the recently held Qualifier 1 at the same venue. Although conditions and poor shot selection played a role in the collapse, it was largely the latter that had a bigger influence, which is why Gill and Sudharsan must be careful, and trust on calclauted risks like they have done for the majority of the season.

The Shreyas Iyer-led had the luxury of batting depth as an incentive to go hard at the top, but GT do not. As a result, both Gill and Sudharsan will have to pick their battles, especially early on, because GT's batting fate is in their hands almost entirely.