GT vs PBKS – IPL 2022

Lore & Background

Gujarat Titans did not exist before the 2022 IPL auction. The franchise was minted to give the state of Gujarat its own identity in the league, and the choice of Hardik Pandya as captain was a statement: this was not a team built for safety. It was built for noise. Shubman Gill, still in his early twenties, was handed the opening slot with a trust that bordered on audacity, and Rashid Khan's inclusion gave the bowling attack a thread of magic that no amount of pace could replicate. Punjab Kings, by contrast, carried the weight of a franchise that had been in the IPL since its earliest years. Their identity was patchwork, their runs of form often punctuated by long droughts, and their home crowds in Mohali and Dharamsala carried a loyalty that refused to fade regardless of results. When GT met PBKS in 2022, it was not merely two teams exchanging overs; it was the league's newest bloodline testing the resilience of one of its oldest. The broader 2022 season confirmed what the early fixtures had hinted: GT were not here to learn. They were here to compete. Their playoff run in a debut season, capped by a hard-fought Qualifier, told the story of a franchise that had arrived with the swagger of a team that had been waiting its entire life to walk onto that pitch.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights at the Narendra Modi Stadium hummed to life, and the crowd – a sea of blue and gold – was already singing before the first ball was bowled. Hardik Pandya stood at the non-striker's end, chewing his gum, eyes scanning the PBKS attack. Shubman Gill, already in his stride, tapped the bat on the turf and whispered something to Hardik that only the two of them would ever know. The first delivery came in, a bit too full, and Gill flicked it through the leg side for a single. The stadium exhaled. Somewhere in the PBKS camp, a coach scribbled a note. The night was young, the pitch was alive, and a team that had not existed eighteen months ago was already rewriting the script. By the time Rashid Khan stepped into his run-up, the air itself seemed to tighten, as if the stadium were holding its breath, waiting for the next delivery to decide who the real story of this season would be.

Reader's Guide

Picture this: it's the 2022 league stage, and Gujarat Titans – a team that literally did not exist a year ago – are sharing the pitch with Punjab Kings. The energy in Ahmedabad is electric; this is the Modi Stadium, the biggest cricket ground on the planet, and the crowd is treating every GT over like a festival. The setup is simple: GT have pace, they have spin, and they have a 22-year-old opening the batting like he's been doing it for a decade. PBKS, meanwhile, bring the kind of experienced, slightly scrappy IPL energy that comes from years of learning the hard way. The early overs are a chess match – Gill working the off-side, Hardik anchoring, the PBKS batters trying to find a rhythm against a bowling attack that mixes left-arm pace with the unguardable loops of Rashid Khan. The turning point in these matchups is always the middle overs. That's where GT's depth shows. That's where a PBKS batter, maybe a touch too aggressive, meets a Rashid delivery that turns off the toe and takes the stumps. The stadium erupts. The momentum swings. And from there, it's a GT team playing with the unselfconscious joy of a side that has nothing to lose and everything to prove. The payoff? A new franchise, in its very first season, telling the league: we're not the new team. We're the team now.

Did You Know?

• Gujarat Titans entered IPL 2022 as a completely new franchise, meaning their very first ever IPL match was in that season – every single ball they bowled or faced that year was a first for the club.
• Shubman Gill was one of the youngest opening batters in the IPL in 2022, yet was entrusted with the top order from day one of GT's existence.
• Rashid Khan, who joined GT for the 2022 season, brought a left-arm wrist-spin style that was a rare and potent weapon in the IPL's predominantly pace-heavy bowling attacks.