'Our top-order's consistency better than Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's destruction' - GT coach Matthew Hayden

Gujarat Titans' batting coach Matthew Hayden said that he would any day prefer the consistency shown by his top three batters - Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill, and Jos Buttler - over the explosiveness of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. He made this statement after the Gujarat Titans (GT) defeated the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 77 runs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Saturday, May 9.

Sudharsan and Gill stitched together a 118-run stand for the first wicket in 11 overs after being invited to bat first. Both batters scored eye-catching half-centuries. Buttler, however, could only manage 13 off 10 balls. The visitors finished on a mammoth score of 229/4 in their 20 overs.

In reply, Sooryavanshi got off to a blistering start, smashing 36 off 16 balls. However, the quickfire knock didn't help the Royals too much as they were shot out for 152. Hayden said that when the target is above 220, it is important to bat deep rather than get out after playing a cameo.

"Well, tonight was a good example, right, of an exciting young talent in Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. He batted, got 30 runs at a strike rate of 300. But when you're chasing 220 odd, you need to bat longer and deeper. So the advantage that we have is that we get players, like the top three that you mentioned, who are striking at 150. Let me tell you as a batter, that is really hard, and they're doing it for a long period of time, they're constantly getting into the back half of the game, not just batting inside the powerplay," Hayden said during the post-match press conference.

"They're going right through with their fitness and their ability to be able to really play Test match-type cricket, and ODI cricket in particular. So, I love the fact that we're going about constructing in innings. Tonight, where we're setting a target, which is a different challenge for us, we've had a number of totals in that sort of 160 range. Which I would back our batting to get through any day of the week, so it was nice tonight to have that bit of a challenge against an X factor team like Rajasthan Royals, and to come out on top was really important for us," he added.

Sooryavanshi has aggregated 440 runs in 11 innings at an average of 40 and a strike rate of 236.56 in IPL 2026. Meanwhile, Sudharsan, Gill, and Buttler have batted at strike rates of 157.71, 160.42, and 151.97, respectively. Gill, the GT skipper, has notched up 462 runs in 10 innings. On the other hand, Sudharsan and Buttler have played 11 innings each and contributed 440 and 348 runs, respectively.