Gujarat Titans’ fast-bowling unit could very well form a new club, with membership granted to those who are over six feet. To summarise, Kagiso Rabada, Ashok Sharma, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma and Gurnoor Brar are all well over six feet. Only Mohammed Siraj misses the qualification; he stands at 5’10”. The essence of the point isn’t to gauge the skills of the aforesaid bowlers. However, it doesn’t take much to understand the key strength of GT’s pace attack: the ability to bang the ball hard into the pitch or use slower short deliveries.
GT’s next opponent, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, are well aware of the challenge in front of them. Against that backdrop, it wasn’t surprising to see Rajat Patidar fine-tuning his horizontal-bat shots in the practice session ahead of RCB’s game at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday. He asked the side-arm throwers to deliver short or short-of-a-length balls, responding with powerful pulls and hooks. When offered width, he brought out the cut shot.
After a while, the side-arm throwers switched to fuller deliveries. The RCB skipper also faced Suyash Sharma, the wrist-spinner, and was in no mood to defend. One of his shots nearly hit the roof of the Chinnaswamy, sailing wide of long-on—a quintessential Patidar stroke.
The bigger question surrounding RCB’s practice, however, centred on Jacob Bethell and his continued absence from the playing XI. Given the current composition of the side, it remains difficult for the talented batter to break into the lineup. Behind the scenes, a couple of former England cricketers, Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen, have voiced contrasting opinions on the benefits of being part of the RCB setup without regular game time. Bethell himself, though, has maintained a positive outlook on representing the franchise.
Mo Bobat, RCB’s director of cricket, also addressed the conundrum surrounding Bethell. “In my old career [as part of England’s coaching setup], I’d have probably wanted him playing county cricket, but that’s a different point,” he said in a pre-match press conference. “I think Jacob himself has talked about how much he’s got out of being at the IPL.
“When he had that innings against India in the T20 semi-final, he pretty much referenced the fact that having experienced some of the things here at the IPL, batting with people like Virat and playing in packed stadiums, meant that he was able to deal with whatever that situation threw at him. Everything he’s experiencing here is going to help him as an England cricketer, that’s for sure.”
That leaves one more question: will Bethell get any game time in IPL 2026? For starters, over the past few days, Bethell has had extended net sessions at the Chinnaswamy. At one point, he was seen practising the reverse hit.
A subset to that discussion is Romario Shepherd, one of RCB’s overseas players, who has had a quiet tournament so far. Shepherd has taken only three wickets at an economy rate of 15.11. Known for his power-hitting, he has also struggled with the bat, scoring just 39 runs.
So, can Bethell replace Shepherd in the playing XI? The caveat is that the two players bring different strengths. There is little possibility of Bethell batting as low as No. 7 or 8, although his left-arm spin could be useful against certain right-hand batters. From what the correspondent has gathered, Bethell could get a game or two soon. Whether that materialises remains to be seen.
Incidentally, Bethell has looked in good touch in almost every training session he has been part of during this IPL. Perhaps it is his way of quietly reminding the RCB think-tank that a player named Bethell is waiting in the wings.
