IPL 2022 PBKS vs GT Preview - The league's entertainers meet its last remaining unbeaten team

Key match stats PBKS vs GT

Pitch Stats – Brabourne Stadium

Average first innings score: 182
Average first innings winning score: 192
Average powerplay score: 52
All-time win % batting 1st vs batting 2nd: 50% / 50%

Team form PBKS vs GT
PBKS – WLW
GT – WW
Recent meetings: n/a

PBKS vs GT Preview

Gujarat Titans come into this match as the only unbeaten team in IPL 2022 and their bowling attack continued to look very good in the recent win against DC.

Lockie Ferguson's 4 for added to Mohammed Shami's early season form, Hardik Pandya's return to fitness and the ever impressive Rashid Khan mean that GT have the tools to limit sides on all surfaces.

Shubman Gill played a gem of an innings last time out and next to the aggressive Matthew Wade and with a powerful middle order to come, this could be the perfect situation for him to realise his immense talent and really take an IPL season by storm. The table below shows he's been a solid performer over recent seasons but if he can move closer to an average of 35 and S/R of 130 then that could go a long way to his new franchise reaching the playoffs in their debut season.

Year	Runs	Ave	S/R
2021	478	28.11	118.90
2020	440	33.84	117.96
2019	296	32.88	124.36

Shubman Gill year by year IPL stats

We saw in last year's IPL that it's not all about brawn and power hitting with the number of runs Gaikwad was able to make in helping CSK to the title. Could Gill do something similar for GT?

PBKS meanwhile continue to be the neutrals favourites. The loss of early wickets in their last couple of games hasn't stopped them continuing to swing hard with Liam Livingstone having the kind of impact on the game against CSK that both he and franchise would have been hoping for when they paid big money at the auction.

How successful the swing from the hip tactics are against this GT bowling attack remains to be seen but it doesn't look like PBKS are going to die wondering at any point this season.

Jonny Bairstow is now also available to add to their ranks of attacking batsmen although exactly how they'll fit him into the side remains to be seen. A straight swap for Rajapaksa would be the most logical change although the Sri Lankan's form in the early part of the IPL will make him difficult to drop.

Batsman	Innings	Average	S/R
KL Rahul	85	47.43	136.38
Gaikwad	22	46.61	132.13
Warner	143	42.63	140.55
Bairstow	28	41.52	142.19

Bairstow is one of only 4 batsmen to maintain an average of over 40 in the IPL (min 20 innings)

PBKS vs GT head to head

PBKS batting vs GT bowling

Run rate in the powerplay to date in IPL 2022

As noted above, PBKS have sort to get off to rapid starts in each of their opening 3 matches hitting scores of 63, 62 and 72 from their powerplays to date. In fact only CSK 73 vs LSG) have managed a powerplay total higher than those 3 by PBKS so this will prove a challenge to the GT bowlers.

Mohammed Shami has been particularly effective up front for GT but in his head to head record against Shikar Dhawan, he's yet to dismiss the PBKS opener once.

Shami vs Dhawan T20 head to head

Liam Livingstone enjoyed himself last time out at this venue and his battle against Rashid Khan could be key to the outcome of this match. Most batsmen look to take a defensive approach to Rashid but not Livingstone who has the highest career strike rate against the Afghan wrist-spinner of any batsman featuring in this year's IPL (min 30 balls faced).

Rashid Khan vs Livingston T20 head to head

In their first match, we also saw the power of the PBKS lower order but since then they've struggled to lay the platform for the likes of Odean Smith to launch from. Meanwhile GT are currently going at just 8 an over at the death so while it may be tempting for PBKS to just keep swinging, they do need to ensure they leave some resources for late in the innings.

PBKS bowling vs GT batting

The early battle between Rabada and Arshdeep Singh against Matthew Wade and Shubman Gill could be key to deciding this match.

Wade's numbers drop off against left-arm seam as shown below so Arshdeep Singh will be keen to get a bowl against the Aussie opener in this game.

Wade career T20 stats vs left-arm pace

By contrast, Shubman Gill averages over 60 against left-arm pace but Arshdeep is 1 of only 4 left-armers to have dismissed him in T20 cricket while Rabada has also kept him quiet in previous encounters.

If Punjab Kings are the strongest team to date in the powerplay then Gujarat are very much the hardest hitters at the death as shown in the graph below.

Death over stats in IPL 2022 to date

PBKS opted to strengthen their pace bowling options by bringing in Vaibhav Arora for the win against CSK and that certainly allowed the likes of Rabada and Arshdeep to be held back for later in the innings (not they were needed against CSK) while removing their reliance on Odean Smith who up until that point had been expensive with ball in hand. It paid off for them in the last game but with Chahar batting at 8 the tail did look a bit long. We wait to see how PBKS approach this match...

All stats used in this blog are from my own database. Images are my own with the exception of player profiles and background images from the below sources and used under a creative commons license or otherwise royalty free

https://www.iplt20.com/
https://pixabay.com/images/search/cricket%20stadium/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en