IPL 2025: The Gujarat Titans are bringing retro back. Post the Impact Player rule in IPL, all teams have consciously embraced going harder with their batting right from the top. The mantra has been: ‘maximise the powerplay, and don’t stop hitting’. But someone didn’t slip the memo to Ashish Nehra and the Titans. They’ve embraced old-school with spectacular effectiveness in IPL 2025, and they’ve been able to do it thanks to the unique gifts of their top three of Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Jos Buttler. And with their win against KKR on Monday (April 21), the Titans have consolidated their position at the top of the IPL 2025 points table.
How Gujarat’s top three have carried their batting
In T20 cricket, it’s natural that the top order scores most of the runs. It’s how batting dynamics in a shortened format play out. Despite that, the weight that the Titans’ top three have carried has been immense, and an outlier. And they’ve done it extremely successfully.
Here is how the top three of all teams stack up so far, in terms of the percentage of total team runs they have made.
Runs by Nos 1, 2, 3 in IPL 2025 (April 21)
| Teams | Runs by Nos. 1, 2, 3 | Total team runs | % of runs by Nos 1, 2, 3 |
| CSK | 540 | 1217 | 44.37% |
| DC | 535 | 1250 | 42.80% |
| GT | 1078 | 1475 | 73.08% |
| KKR | 567 | 1161 | 48.84% |
| LSG | 962 | 1468 | 65.53% |
| MI | 645 | 1327 | 48.61% |
| PBKS | 726 | 1333 | 54.46% |
| RR | 765 | 1417 | 53.99% |
| RCB | 738 | 1301 | 56.73% |
| SRH | 624 | 1252 | 49.84% |
While some teams have stronger middle orders, there’s still no team where the top three in the batting order haven’t scored a bulk of runs. But look at the heavy lifting the Titans’ trio have done. No other team is even close. LSG have the next highest percentage, but that’s because their batters beyond the top three haven’t made too many runs. For the Titans, it’s more about the top three being so prolific that the others hardly get a chance to bat. And it’s not been to the Titans’ detriment, because Gill, Sudharsan and Buttler have not dawdled. They’ve got big runs, and they’ve got them at a good pace.
The CSK parallel
The model this most closely resembles among IPL champions of the 2020s is Chennai Super Kings (CSK). In both their wins – 2021 and 2023 – they had heavy-scoring top threes. Even CSK, at their championship-winning form, didn’t approach the sheer massiveness of the Titans’ top three.
IPL winning sides in 2020s and Titans 2025
CSK have always preferred the old-school method of laying a platform, accelerating, and then exploding. But the Titans are on track to beat even that mark, if the rest of their season goes how the first half has gone.
| Teams | Runs by Nos. 1, 2, 3 | Total team runs | % of runs by Nos. 1, 2, 3 |
| MI 2020 | 1517 | 2642 | 57.42% |
| CSK 2021 | 1686 | 2607 | 64.67% |
| GT 2022 | 1208 | 2517 | 47.99% |
| CSK 2023 | 1677 | 2600 | 64.50% |
| KKR 2024 | 1400 | 2481 | 56.43% |
| GT 2025 | 1078 | 1475 | 73.08% |
The potential pitfall
There is one obvious pitfall to this method, one that the Indian team that had a top-order of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli is familiar with – what happens if the top three fail? That is a legitimate concern for the Titans, but given the variety of bowling attacks, conditions and situations they have weathered so far, it doesn’t look likely that all three will fail together.
All of Gill, Sudharsan and Buttler have scored more than 300 runs so far, and all are striking at above 150. Sudharsan, of course, has the Orange Cap right now, and is up to 417 runs for the season, averaging above 50 without a single not-out. Sudharsan, in fact, could be the single most consistent batter in the IPL. In 33 IPL innings so far, spread across four seasons, he has only two single-digit scores. Meanwhile, Buttler has been striking at 166 this IPL, and averaging 71.20. And Gill has just hit his highest score of this season, the Titans’ 39-run win against Kolkata Knight Riders.
It’s still possible that all three fail together – and then we’ll see how well the Titans’ middle-order holds up and how well their gun bowling attack can defend less optimal scores. But for now, the Titans’ top three don’t look like they’ll stop making runs anytime soon.
