IPL 2024 RR vs GT Preview - The Royals seek to extend their winning start

Key match stats

Pitch Stats – IPL records at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium

Pitch stats from the 10 most recent IPL matches played at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium

Team form RR vs GT
RR: WWWW
GT: WLWLL

Recent meetings: IPL 2023 - GT won by 9 wickets, RR won by 3 wickets

Weather

General Forecast: Dry and clear
Chance of dew: Low

Preview RR vs GT

And then there was one!

KKR's defeat against CSK last night means that Rajasthan Royals are now the only team with an unbeaten record in IPL 2024. This match then offers RR an opportunity to move 4 points clear at the top of the league.

For their part, GT have the chance to move back into the chasing pack of 4 teams on 6 points with victory here today. The Titans have lost their last 2 matches and never in their relatively short history have they lost 3 in a row.

The Titans were one of several teams to visit the Sawai Mansingh Stadium last year and come away with a convincing win (9 wickets with 37 balls to spare) thanks in large part to the brilliance of their wrist spinners who took 5 wickets between them.

GT would love to see Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmed rediscover that kind of form in this match. Both are currently striking at exactly a wicket every 4 overs which is a significant decrease on last year's returns where they were achieving strike rates of 14.8 and 17.6 respectively while also maintaining a better economy.

However, it's not just the spin bowling department that has seen a decline in output this season. The GT powerplay is averaging a score of just 49.6 in their 5 matches to date. The only team with a lower average score than that in the PP are their unbeaten opponents today, Rajasthan Royals.

Where the Royals have been successful though is in improving that scoring rate through the middle and death overs. In their final 5 overs of an innings this season, Rajasthan are scoring at an average run rate of 12.8, whereas the Titans are scoring at just 10 an over in the same period. In a league where most matches are decided by small margins, GT appear to be losing ground in several key phases of the game.

There was talk during and after the game here against RCB that dew had played a factor in dictating the outcome of the match. There did seem to be a little bit of moisture on the outfield in the 2nd innings but I think its impact was overplayed by the commentators and losing captain Faf du Plessis. What ultimately cost RCB was the poor finish to their innings and the lack of quality spinners to compete with the Royals' attack.

The stats still suggest that this is a win the toss and bat first venue. That was what happened in 4 of the 5 games played here last season as well as the opening fixture of 2024 against LSG. Since the start of last season, 5 of the 8 matches played at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium have been won by the team batting first and I suspect that had RCB have scored 195 and had a couple of decent spinners in their team they would have continued that trend regardless of meteorological conditions.

RR vs GT head to head

GT bowling vs RR batting

It was a fantastic innings from Jos Buttler to set up the Royal's 4th win of the season and a very welcome return to form for a player who has struggled really since the middle of last year's IPL.

Buttler T20 head to head vs Umesh Yadav

We've seen in previous seasons of the IPL that when Buttler gets on a role he can start stringing match winning performances together. Buttler is also at a significant advantage in as far as Mohammed Shami being absent from this GT side is concerned. Shami has knocked him over cheaply on a couple of recent occasions whereas his record vs Umesh Yadav is significantly better.

You can certainly see that the loss of Shami has impacted the potency of this GT attack. However, Umesh did strike twice in the powerplay against LSG and yet the GT spinners weren't able to fully take advantage of that strong start in the way they have done over the last couple of seasons.

Rashid Khan has enjoyed this surface on his previous visits and the underlying stats for the Sawai Mansingh continue to show that this is a spinner's wicket.

Rashid Khan T20 record at the Sawai Mansigh Stadium

Noor Ahmed also took 2 wickets here last season and despite the excellent form of Rajasthan's right handers, you still have to fancy GT's 2 x wrist-spinners as a good match-up for the visitors.

It also means that the wicket of Jaiswal is very important to limiting that match-up. He got out to a bit of a hack against RCB and is perhaps showing signs of mental fatigue after what has been a brilliant 12 months across multiple formats of the game.

RR bowling vs GT batting

In my preview of the 2024 season, I questioned whether sticking with Saha at the top of the order was really the way to go for GT and they've ultimately decided to bite the bullet and drop him.

However, while I'm a big fan of young Sai Sudharsan and Kane Williamson is a generational talent, I'm not sure that putting them into the top 3 alongside Shubman Gill is the way to go. T20 cricket requires at least 1 batsmen in the top 3 who is comfortable just hitting out while the field restrictions are in place and that's not the natural game for any of these guys who are more at home playing the anchor role.

GT middle overs (overs 7 to 15) batting stats in IPL 2024

Making slower starts is less of a problem if either your top order bats through the innings, accelerating as they go and/or your middle and lower order are coming in and upping the rate. Neither is happening for GT this season! The innings is stalling in the middle phase and their power hitters just haven't been able to revive it late on.

You feel that against this Royals line-up that if GT don't get off to a positive start then they will invite pressure from the likes of Chahal and Ashwin in that middle phase. They then face the most economical death overs bowlers in the tournament to date with RR conceding just 8.9 an over in the final 5.

David Miller combined T20 head to head vs Ashwin and Chahal

The one player in the GT squad that might be able to change that dynamic is David Miller who has missed the last 2 games (both defeats) due to injury. There is no official line on the extend of that knock with the suggestion in interviews that he'll be "out for a week or two".

He last played for GT on 31 March where he scored a match winning 42* off 27 balls. He also has a very strong record against both Ashwin and Chahal. Without him, the Titans look short on quality in a middle order that has struggled all season.

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All stats used in this blog are from my own databases which are freely accessible below
IPL player head to head records
IPL player records by stadium
IPL stadium records.
Images are my own with the exception of player profiles and highlights within GIFs which are not intended to infringe copyright- read full disclaimer. Background images are used under a creative commons license or otherwise royalty free.