Gujarat Titans had a poor start to IPL 2026 having lost their first two matches.

When they seemed to get back on track with two wins, the Shubman Gill-led side again tripped, losing to Mumbai Indians and RCB. They regrouped since to pull off five consecutive victories and stay in the top half of the table with 16 points from 12 games.

Barring a major setback, they seem almost certain of making this season’s playoffs.

A major part of their success could be attributed to a solid pace attack comprising Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Jason Holder and Prasidh Krishna. Not to forget left-arm pacer Arshad Khan, who has impressed in the five matches so far.

Their pace attack has so far taken 66 wickets, mostly banking on Test-match lengths, under the able guidance of head coach Ashish Nehra.

“That’s the advantage of having proper Test-match bowlers in your line-up, I guess, and they’ve been ably led by Shubman Gill and Ashish Nehra in terms of the bowling philosophies,” Sai Kishore said at a news conference on Tuesday.

“In terms of what line to bowl in the Powerplay and on such a wicket, not depending on the slower balls or yorkers a lot, trusting that hard length, trusting that good line... proper Test-match bowling, I think that has made a huge difference in the season for us.”

Having clarity and consistency in the bowling attack has also helped. South African spearhead Rabada has been in superb form claiming 21 wickets at an economy of 9.15. Cheteshwar Pujara praised the way he dismissed Abhishek Sharma in Ahmedabad.

“Abhishek tried to create room on that delivery where he got dismissed, which batters often do when the ball is quick and bouncing. But credit to Kagiso Rabada. He read Abhishek’s movement,” Pujara said on JioHotstar.

“Originally, Rabada was bowling outside the fourth stump line. When Abhishek shuffled across early, Rabada adjusted his line. He followed the batter and cramped him for room. The result was an inside edge onto the stumps. That was high-quality bowling. The ball also hit Abhishek’s glove before taking the inside edge of his bat, which shows the ball bounced more than expected.”

Washington Sundar revealed the team’s mindset.

“It means a lot. This season has been extremely competitive, with every team coming hard at us,” he said.

“To win five games on the trot speaks volumes about the consistency we’ve shown. At the same time, sticking to what has worked for us is also a challenge. You can sometimes lose rhythm by trying to do too many things, but I think we’ve done well to avoid that.”