Gujarat Titans promoted Nishant Sindhu over Jos Buttler in the IPL 2026 final. Here's why they might have made the move.
GT promote Nishant Sindhu after early wicket in IPL 2026 final
RCB, playing their second consecutive final, won the toss and chose to field first at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. As usual, the battle between their bowlers and the Gujarat Titans top three of Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Jos Buttler was highly-anticipated, and would go a long way towards deciding the match.
Disaster struck for GT as Gill was dismissed by Josh Hazlewood in the third over. Buttler was expected to stride out to the middle, but instead, uncapped all-rounder Nishant Sindhu walked to the crease. Sindhu had been promoted to No.3 once before this season, when Sai Sudharsan was forced to retire hurt; on that occasion, it was largely accepted the decision was made in order to maintain the left-right pairing at the crease.
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This was not the case this time around, as the left-hander joined the left-handed Sai Sudharsan in the middle. The call could have been taken in order to prevent Buttler from facing too much of Bhuvneshwar Kumar; the Englishman averaged 13.7 against him in T20 cricket before today. But by the same token, Buttler averaged 78 against Josh Hazlewood, whom he would have faced first up had he come in.
Aaron Finch and AB de Villiers on the broadcast ventured that the reason may have been to extend GT's batting lineup, i.e., Buttler coming in later might allow him to tackle more of the second half of the innings as well. Irrespective, de Villiers called the move "defensive, and I don't like it."
It didn't make much of a difference to Buttler's eventual entry point as Sudharsan was dismissed soon after Gill, forcing Buttler to walk out at No.4 in the fourth over of the innings.
GT vs RCB, IPL 2026 final playing XIs
Gujarat Titans: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabda, Arshad Khan, Mohammed Siraj.
Impact Player options: Sai Kishore, Prasidh Krishna, Glenn Phillips, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Jitesh Sharma, Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Jacob Duffy, Rasikh Salam.
Impact Player options: Swapnil Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Jordan Cox, Kanishk Chouhan, Abhinandan Singh.
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