Mumbai: Which bowler has had the greatest impact during the Powerplay this season? Bhuvneshwar Kumar? Mohammed Shami? Jofra Archer? While each of these players has performed well in IPL 2026, Mohammed Siraj has delivered the most balls during the Powerplay (PP). And who comes next? His teammate, Kagiso Rabada.
It takes two to tango. Siraj has held his own thanks to his South African bowling partner Rabada. The Gujarat Titans opening duo has doubled down on early impact – Siraj being the more economical (ER 6.9) and Rabada picking up most wickets (11) during the field restrictions.
In fact, the KG-Siraj combine has been the fulcrum around GT’s strategy to squeeze and fry batting sides amid all the hostility in the opening overs. T20 does not encourage bowlers with the swagger of being fast and furious like Wasim & Waqar or Walsh & Ambrose. What bowling combinations can do is work as a pair for tactical supremacy, something Ashish Nehra’s GT has done brilliantly with KG-Siraj.
GT have recorded a hat-trick of wins and are surging up the ladder for a playoff push. KG-Siraj’s opening bursts have been a common theme in each of these wins. Their collective returns in the first 6 overs — 44-3 vs PBKS, 58-2 vs RCB, 28-3 vs CSK — have allowed GT to restrict the opposition to sub-170 totals before batters chased them down.
Siraj has bowled three Powerplay overs for seven matches in a row now. Rabada too has bowled in the entire Powerplay in five of the past six matches. The pace duo works with an uncomplicated mantra, to hit hard lengths like they would with the red ball, every time the pitch facilitates. While a number of other sides have been unable to create favourable home conditions, GT have managed this aspect of their strategy to perfection. If there’s swing on offer, both will find that too.
“Credit to both KG and Siraj. They have been outstanding throughout the competition. They have led the Powerplay and made it difficult for the opposition,” said Jason Holder, GT’s first change pacer. “Very rarely have I seen two bowlers bowl back-to-back in the Powerplay. It shows their class and quality. When they start, they set the tone in terms of what length works on the wicket and it is a matter for all the other bowlers to follow.”
Holder, with his accurate length bowling, has directly benefited from GT’s new ball bowlers. He took 4/24 in the SRH game. Before Holder, GT utilised Ashok Sharma and Prasidh Krishna in the middle overs.
The only other bowler as economical as Siraj has been Mohammed Shami, but the LSG pacer has not had the same support from the other end. Similarly, Bhuvneshwar has been outstanding for RCB, but partner Josh Hazlewood’s late entry to the IPL has diminished overall returns.
In many ways, GT using up KG-Siraj’s overs early hides the creases from other aspects of their bowling. Neither are as effective when it comes to death bowling, They are used sparingly in the middle overs. Front-loading them to maximum capacity is the GT way of using specialists for every bowling position, a luxury the Impact Player rule offers with the sixth bowling option.
KG-Siraj have not been as effective when GT have bowled second. Can opposing teams strategise better by forcing GT to play on batting beauties? That could possibly challenge their frontline bowlers more, so also their overall strategy with their batting Powerplays more conservative.
On the evidence of this year’s action, no opposition has truly been able to challenge GT bowlers in the early exchanges, except once, when RR’s smashing left-handers Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal managed 69-0.
“We get caught up with what’s going around in the entire competition,” said Holder of GT’s plans. “When you look back on the history of this franchise, they’ve got a pretty good record. They’ve done well consistently over the five years. They must be doing something well.”