IPL Qualifier 1 Play of the Day: When Shubman Gill's gamble backfired on Gujarat

15 minutes. 15 minutes of poor decision-making was all it took for the Gujarat Titans to crash out of the Indian Premier League Qualifier 1 on Tuesday. Playing at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala, Shubman Gill's side lost by a mammoth margin of 92 runs in a one-sided contest.

In a 20-over game, it took only a couple of minuscule decisions to leave GT ending up on the wrong end of the stick. For those who did not see the match, Shubman Gill's Gujarat opted to bowl first in Dharamsala, a ground that heavily favours the chasing team, and yet ended up conceding 254 runs in the first innings. The final 5 overs of RCB's innings yielded 104 runs, which completely rattled the Titans.

Qualifier 1, RCB vs GT: Highlights | Scorecard

Chasing a record IPL play-offs total, Gujarat simply failed to put up a fight and ended up being bowled out for 162 runs, losing by 92 runs. However, it was neither the batting failure nor the dismantling of the ball that cost GT; it was a few decisions taken by Shubman Gill and the GT management that brought doom to the side.

In today's Indian Premier League Play of the Day, where we look beyond the scoresheet and find key moments where the match's fate was changed, we take a deep dive into the thought process of the GT management.

First up, who on earth thought it was a good idea to give Kulwant Khejroliya his first IPL 2026 match in Qualifier 1? Not picked in the IPL auction 2026, Khejroliya was signed as an injury replacement for Prithvi Raj Yarra.

The left-arm pacer bowled two overs on Tuesday and conceded 31 runs. His second over yielded 28 for RCB in the 15th over. The 28-run over included two no-balls, four boundaries, and a six, essentially setting up RCB's charge in the death overs.

Kulwant was picked in place of GT's slingy left-arm pacer Arshad Khan, who has the capability of bowling at 145+ kmph. Khejroliya was anything but that.

If that was the first brain fade by the GT management and Shubman, the second one would be even worse.

By the 10th over of the match, the game was quite balanced in Dharamsala. Shubman Gill's side won the toss, opted to bowl first, and dismissed three players from the RCB lineup for 99 runs. Rashid Khan bowled 2 overs for just 8 runs, providing the perfect choke after the pacers had done their job in the first half of the game.

They had gone for runs, sure, but they managed to get rid of Venkatesh Iyer, Virat Kohli, and Devdutt Padikkal.

Bowling against spin bashers Rajat Patidar and Krunal Pandya, who had played 3 and six balls respectively, Rashid was doing really well.

Fearing that Rashid would be hit for a lot of runs if he were to bowl his third over at the time, Shubman pulled him away. In fact, he pulled away any overs of spin altogether.

Between the 11th and the 15th overs, only Jason Holder, Prasidh Krishna, and, as said above, Kulwant Khejroliya operated. And these are the 15 minutes that cost GT the game.

Prasidh, bowling his second over in the 14th, saw two catches go down: one a tough chance between Khejroliya and Buttler, behind the wicketkeeper's position, and another by Kagiso Rabada in the deep.

The dropped catches and a couple of other misfields unsettled GT, and they paid the price in the 15th over—the 28-run one from Khejroliya.

Looking to avert a crisis, Shubman made the worst possible decision to bring back Rashid Khan against an absolutely set Patidar and Krunal, who had played 47 balls combined.

Get this again: when Rashid left the attack at 2-0-8-0, the batting duo had played just 9 balls between them and scored a total of 6 runs. When Rashid finally returned, all hell had broken loose, and the duo added 69 more runs between them, having faced a total of 41 balls.

Shubman's panic resulted in exactly what you would expect. Rashid Khan was taken to town by both batters, yielding 21 runs in the 16th over, and from there on, it was an absolute landslide. From a point where things were in control, with the required run rate hovering around 10 RPO, Shubman's GT conceded 254.

Patidar remained unbeaten at 93 with a staggering strike-rate of 281. There was simply no chance that Shubman's GT were chasing 255 down.

Gujarat will now drive down to Chandigarh from the hills and take on the winner of SunRisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals, who play the Eliminator on May 27. Gill, GT, and their coaching staff will hope that they do not commit such elementary mistakes ever again.

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