The Gujarat Titans became the first team to qualify for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 playoffs, winning 10 of the 14 matches they played in the league stage. Though the franchise put in a consistent show of quality, all is not well with the GT squad, at least for former India cricketer Virender Sehwag. In a chat ahead of the Qualifier 2, Sehwag expressed his disappointment at GT batter Dasun Shanaka who had come into the team as a replacement for injured Kane Williamson.
In the three matches that Shanaka played, he only scored 26 runs, with the best being 17. Sehwag, refusing to mince his words, said that the Sri Lankan didn't even give 1 percent of what was expected from him.
"I'm not worried about the bowling too much. But I am worried about Dasun Shanaka, GT can play Odean Smith and Alzarri Joseph for him. Shanaka has been disappointing. We had big hopes from him and he hasn't lived up to even 1 percent to those expectations. GT should play Manhor instead of Shanaka, as he is a batter who can smash sixes," said Sehwag on Cricbuzz.
The Titans are to face Mumbai Indians in the Qualifier 2 after they lost the Qualifier 1 against Chennai Super Kings. Though Hardik Pandya's men didn't live up to the expectations in the match, the skipper wasn't too disappointed.
After the game, Hardik had said: “I think we were quite spot-on (with the ball), but we made basic errors and that costed us the game. The kind of bowlers we had, I felt we conceded 15 extra runs. A lot of things we did right. We bowled a couple of soft balls in between. We were executing our plans and then in between we gave some runs. I don't think we need to look much into it. We have to play two days later, we have to play one more game to make sure we reach the final. Just focus on the things that we've done really well this season.”