"Shahrukh Khan was their best buy" - Parthiv Patel on Gujarat Titans' acquisition of Tamil Nadu big-hitter as Hardik Pandya's replacement
Parthiv Patel has picked Shahrukh Khan as the Gujarat Titans' best buy at the IPL 2024 auction in Dubai on Tuesday.
The Titans spent ₹30.30 crore to acquire eight players at the auction and complete a full-strength 25-member squad. Spencer Johnson (₹10 crore), Shahrukh (₹7.40 crore), Umesh Yadav (₹5.80 crore), and Robin Minz (₹3.60 crore) were their most expensive picks at the auction.
While reviewing the auction on JioCinema, Parthiv was asked about the Gujarat Titans' acquisitions, to which he responded:
"Robin Minz is a good inclusion. It will give them a different type of option. The biggest gap they had to fill was the one left by Hardik Pandya. I feel they have shown faith in Shahrukh Khan there. He can bat both ways at No. 5 or No. 6. He is an experienced player. I feel Shahrukh Khan was their best buy."
The former India wicketkeeper-batter questioned whether the Titans could have bid more for Mitchell Starc. He said:
"The team is looking strong but based on the purse they had, they might be thinking that they probably didn't get their first-choice players. They wanted Mitchell Starc. They went till 24.50 crores for him but could they have spent more there?"
Parthiv pointed out that Ashish Nehra and company were forced to buy Spencer Johnson when they didn't get Starc as they needed a backup for Joshua Little. On the flip side, he added that Azmatullah Omarzai's acquisition for ₹50 lakh was a steal for the Ahmedabad-based franchise.
"When you go into the auction with so much money, you feel you will dominate it, but that didn't happen" - RP Singh on Gujarat Titans' tactics
![GT were involved in a bidding war with PBKS for Harshal Patel but couldn't acquire him. [P/C: iplt20.com]](https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2023/12/1aa0a-17030659820397-1920.jpg?w=500)
RP Singh was further asked whether the Gujarat Titans were able to plug the gap left by Hardik Pandya through the combined skill of two of their acquisitions, to which he replied, via the aforementioned source:
"They have tried for sure but I don't think they have been able to fill that gap. They have a long list of first-choice players who they couldn't get. When you go into the auction with so much money, you feel you will dominate it, but that didn't happen."
The former India pacer added that the Titans couldn't seal the deal for the players they went after and even ended up bidding for players they had released. He stated:
"You went a long way to buy players, then left them, and went back to the old players you had released. They went after Yash Dayal because they needed pacers as all pacers had been bought."
Singh concluded by opining that the Gujarat Titans' Plan A was not successful and that Plan B wasn't clearly visible. He added that the franchise erred somewhere as they couldn't buy a single marquee player despite having the highest remaining purse heading into the auction.