Although he was smiling, the look of disappointment was visible on Shubman Gill's face as he made his way to the podium for the post-match presentation. The Gujarat Titans captain failed miserably with the bat as his side lost by five wickets in the IPL 2026 final in Ahmedabad.
Speaking in the post-match presentation, Gill was straightforward and didn't hide behind excuses. He started off by pointing out that reaching a total of 180 or 190 could have helped his bowlers defend the target. "Yes, definitely, if we would have gotten close to a 180 or 190, it would have been a good match," he said.
After Rajat Patidar won the toss and opted to bat, GT got off to a horrible start. Openers Sai Sudharsan (12) and Gill (10) departed early, and so did no. 3 batter Nishant SIndhu (20). Meanwhile, Jos Buttler (19) failed to build on his start. Washington Sundar got an unbeaten 37-ball 50*, which helped GT get to 155/8 in 20 overs. It was a total collapse for the GT middle order as Arshad Khan (15), Rahul Tewatia (7), Jason Holder (7) and Rashid Khan (7) failed to have any impact. Krunal Pandya took three wickets for RCB, Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar bagged two-wicket hauls.
Chasing 156 runs, RCB cruised to 161/5 in 18 overs as Virat Kohli's unbeaten 42-ball 75* proved to be the difference maker. He was striking at 178.57, also hammering nine fours and three sixes. During his knock, Kohli also got to his fastest IPL half-century, off only 25 balls.
Meanwhile, Venkatesh Iyer (32) and Tim David (24) also made crucial contributions. For GT, Rashid Khan took two wickets.
When asked if the pitch was behaving on the slower or two-paced side, he claimed, "Honestly, not that much, maybe a little bit. You have seen that whenever we are playing here in the first two or three overs, there is a little movement for the fast bowlers. We lost a couple of early wickets, and we lost the momentum in the middle, couldn't really get going. But then we knew we are playing in the finals, 150 or 160, we get a couple of early wickets in the powerplay, we are always in the game."
Bowlers also get the blame
GT did get wickets, but they failed to get them in decisive moments. They let David hit three fours and a maximum. Meanwhile, they failed to remove Kohli, who remained unbeaten. Meanwhile, Iyer's (32 off 16 balls) early onslaught proved to be pivotal in the powerplay.
When asked if GT bowlers responded a little too late, Gill agreed. "Yes, I think 15-20 runs too many in the powerplay, had we restricted them to around 50-55 runs, we still would have had a chance. But I think they got away a little bit in the power play," he said.
Despite the defeat in the final hurdle, GT's IPL 2026 run has been special. They started poorly, but soon found their momentum, finishing the league stage in second position. They lost to RCB in Qualifier 1, but then bounced back to winning ways, beating RR by seven wickets in Qualifier 2. But once again, 'sRCB's ability to win games proved too much, as the defending champions won their second IPL title.
The GT bowling unit was dominant, with Kagiso Rabada winning the Purple Cap with 17 wickets. Meanwhile, Rashid Khan (21) and Mohammed Siraj (19) came fourth and seventh.
"I think we were one of the best bowling sides in the tournament. After losing the first couple of games, the way we came back in the tournament, and we kept talking, pushing ourselves, kept challenging ourselves in different areas, kept improving those 5 per cent factors," said Gill.
In the batting department, Gill came second in the Orange Cap standings, behind Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (776). Gill finished his season with 732 runs in 16 matches at an average of 45.75 and also striking at 163.02. Meanwhile, Sudharsan came third with 722 runs in 17 games.
Stating that he was happy with GT's overall performance, he concluded, "Yes, definitely, very happy. We couldn't get over the line, but there are always things you could improve, even if you had won the trophy. There were still things we felt as a group we needed to work on."