Gujarat Titans batting all-rounder Shahrukh Khan said the side must treat their heavy 99-run defeat to the Mumbai Indians at the Narendra Modi Stadium as an aberration in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 campaign, adding that every team endures at least one such result over the course of a long season.
GT, the IPL 2022 winners, will next take on defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday, with an aim to get back to winning ways and improve their net run rate.
A major point to watch out for will be how their middle-order, including Shahrukh, will step up in the rest of the season after having a forgetful time against MI, especially with their top three batters – captain Shubman Gill, B. Sai Sudharsan, and Jos Buttler – falling in the first five overs.
“That’s the thing we have to do (set it aside and focus on upcoming games). Obviously, ups and downs in a long tournament are really normal for any team, but as professionals, it’s important to set that aside and look forward to what has to be done. I think everybody is experienced enough to know it.
“One bad loss can’t define us as a team. Everybody has that one bad loss in a long tournament. As individuals, we’ve set that aside and take the positives out of what happened and then move forward,” said Shahrukh in an exclusive conversation with IANS on Tuesday.
Last season, Shahrukh scored 179 runs at a strike rate of 179, but the lower-order hitter hasn’t been off to the best of starts this year, making only 35 runs from 25 balls. At GT, Shahrukh has been deployed at various positions in the batting order – number four, six, and seven, and stated he does not view his role as rigidly fixed.
“Obviously, my role is in the lower-middle order. But as the game progresses, it’s not that somebody will bat in one particular situation. As the game progresses, everybody has to be ready to go in there and adapt to any situation and play.
“It’s not a fixed sort of role. It’s important that as middle order batters, we are really open in our head and try and go out and react to any situation that’s in front of us,” he said.
Asked about the difference in batting across positions, particularly at number four compared to six or seven, Shahrukh acknowledged the contrasting demands of the roles, but maintained that professional adaptability was non-negotiable.
“It is obviously a different role altogether. I wouldn’t say that this position is good or that position is good. As professionals, we must adapt to any situation, as I told you.
“At number four, obviously, you have the chance of taking a bit more time, probably three to four balls extra to get your eyes set in. But lower down the order, that doesn’t happen. As professionals, we all know that this is the situation, and this is how it is going to be wherever we bat.
“Obviously, as per the amount of balls that we hit in the nets and practice, it’s important that we adapt to any situation that’s in front of us. Obviously, if we have a question of batting at number four or seven, it is different. But as professionals, we have to do it. We don’t have any other choice here,” he said.
Former Australia opener Matthew Hayden has joined the Gujarat Titans as batting coach for IPL 2026, and Shahrukh shed light on the veteran’s impact in the side’s batting group. “He has been a world-class player, obviously.
“Everybody looks up to him because of the power and the dominance that he showed throughout his career; whenever he batted, it was just immense. He has been really helping all batters in the nets – very simple information here and there. It’s really helping batters to go out there and do what they want to.
“Hayden has obviously been a great influence for every batter who comes in, especially openers, because he has opened all his life, and the way he communicates stuff to the openers is brilliant, and his coming to the team has obviously gotten that. He is a guy who is always switched on, and he has got that aggression. So, it’s really good to have him around,” he elaborated.
On his specific preparations for acing the finisher’s role in the rest of the season, Shahrukh signed off by saying that he’s aiming to ace two primary challenges bowlers pose at the back-end – yorkers and slower deliveries.
“The finisher’s role is to start going from ball one, according to what the situation is put in front of you. The preparation has been very simple. Obviously, in the death overs, everybody is trying to bowl yorkers or slower balls.
“So, it’s either of the two, and the preparation has been such that just try and pick slower balls as early as possible and try and hit it as straight and hard as possible.
“Obviously, yorkers are something that all bowlers go to in the death overs. So, try to dig out yorkers as much as possible at practice. So, work on these two aspects of death-overs batting is going on,” he concluded.
