For years, T20 cricket kept moving further away from traditional bowling. Yorkers became the safest option, slower balls became essential, and mystery spin started dominating the middle overs. But Gujarat Titans (GT) have quietly built their IPL 2026 campaign on something far simpler – relentless hard lengths and what spinner R Sai Kishore called “having proper Test-match bowlers in your line-up”.
That formula worked perfectly again on Tuesday night in Ahmedabad as Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada and Jason Holder ripped through Sunrisers Hyderabad to bowl them out for 86 in a crushing 82-run win. Siraj and Rabada blew away the top-order with movement and discipline before Holder kept tightening the screws through the middle overs.
After the game, Sai Kishore explained how GT’s attack had succeeded this season by trusting simple, repeatable lengths instead of constantly searching for magic deliveries.
“Overall, this season, I think Siraj and Rabada have been hitting their lengths very well. That is the advantage of having proper Test-match bowlers in your line-up, I guess,” Sai Kishore said in the post-match press conference.
“And we have been ably led by Shubman Gill and Ashish Nehra in terms of the bowling philosophies, in terms of what lengths to bowl in the powerplay. And on such a wicket, not depending on the slower balls or yorkers a lot, trusting that hard length, trusting that good length on this wicket, bowling proper Test-match bowling, I think that has made a huge difference in the season for us,” he added.
Sai Kishore, though, insisted the attack was not one-dimensional and could easily shift methods if conditions demanded it later in the tournament.
“I think that is where adaptability comes into play. You made a very valid point that when the conditions change, bowlers might not be that effective. But I think that is where adaptability comes into play,” he said.
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“KG Rabada, Prasidh, Siraj, Holder — all these guys are very good with their yorkers and slower ones as well. But in such a wicket where there is a lot of purchase, you have to be brave and bowl those hard lengths. That has been the philosophy.”
“But if the wicket doesn’t have a lot of purchase, if it’s a very placid wicket, I think we will be smart enough to bowl those yorkers, bowl those slow ones, slow bumpers and get out of the over well. I think we are equipped with it. It’s just that we have played a lot of games on wickets like this this season, so we have stuck to Test-match bowling,” he added.
While GT’s seamers have thrived, life has become increasingly difficult for spinners across IPL 2026.
Flatter pitches, powerful bats and fearless batting have forced many slow bowlers to rethink their methods entirely. Some like Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Krunal Pandya have bowled bouncers and altered his release points.
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Sai Kishore admitted that modern-day spinners no longer had the luxury of being predictable.
“I think it is mainly because of necessity. The amount of left-hand batters that are in the market are very less compared to the number of right-handers. The more left-handers came into the scene, and the less left-arm spinners bowled, there is a lot of need to be innovative. Like they say, necessity is the mother of all inventions. Because the need is there, now people have to evolve,” he said.
The GT spinner added that he, too, was constantly trying to evolve and stay ahead of changing batting trends.
“That is what I try to do in my own game, where I want to always be evolving and be ahead of the curve and be very creative and fearless in my own approach,” he said.
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“I did bowl a few bouncers last year. I think it is just about the situation. It is about having all the skill sets, being very orthodox and still having all those unorthodox skills,” he added.
