Jos Buttler endured a poor T20 World Cup 2026 campaign.
Gujarat Titans (GT) have historically operated with a limited set of batters, and IPL 2026 will be no different. Their top three – Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, and Jos Buttler – will again need to do the heavy lifting in the batting unit. Last season, the trio accumulated 70.39% of the team’s runs.
While they will hope to continue the same this time, GT must be worried about Buttler’s recent form. He just endured a terrible T20 World Cup 2026 campaign, scoring only 87 runs at an abysmal average of 10.87 and a strike rate of 116 in eight innings, with a best of 26. The ever-consistent batter has shown obvious weaknesses against pacers, especially on the deliveries outside the off-stump line.
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Gujarat Titans have just three main batters as above, while others are either inconsistent, inexperienced or all-rounders. Their likely batting unit will be: Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler, Glenn Phillips, Washington Sundar, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, and Jason Holder. In this lineup, Phillips remains the only other specialist batter who brings real batting value for GT, even though the likes of Shahrukh and Sundar have shown improvements.
Additionally, Gill is out of the T20 run, with his last outing in the format coming in December last year. He struggled massively in international cricket and was eventually dropped from the T20 World Cup 2026. Meanwhile, Sudharsan remains another batter with fewer matches; he has played only six T20 games since IPL 2025, the last of which came in December.
They had Sherfane Rutherford, but he was traded to Mumbai Indians (MI) ahead of IPL 2026. In return, they didn’t get another solid LHB in the middle order. Phillips has yet to get a consistent run in the league, so they might rely too much on Shahrukh and Sundar, which can backfire big time.
IPL teams might be more prepared to front-load their main bowlers to get those early wickets and break in the middle order to make them vulnerable. During the last season, they suffered massively in the later stages when the top three couldn’t score big, and Buttler left for international duties. Hence, GT can’t afford the English batter to continue his middling form.
Ideally, Gujarat Titans would want Jos Buttler to regain his form, and flat IPL surfaces might work in his favour. But in case his struggles continue, GT can replace him with Tom Banton, who was bought for INR 2 crore at the IPL 2026 auction. Banton blew hot and cold in the recently concluded tournament, but remains a quality batter.
He can be flexible with his batting position and brings superior skills against spin, which will help him thrive on flat decks. If Buttler shows no improvements, GT can swap him straight away for Banton since he can also keep wickets. His main task in the team was always going to be Buttler’s backup, and GT might need his services at some stage.
The good thing is that Banton has played some matches in subcontinent conditions at the T20 World Cup 2026. So, he won’t have enough issues acclimatising to the conditions should the need arise. That said, Gujarat Titans would still back Buttler to regain his form and return to his beast mode.
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