IPL 2023: Aakash Chopra Opines on the Gujarat Titans’ IPL 2023 Qualifier 2 Clash vs Mumbai Indians

Former India cricketer turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra feels that the Mumbai Indians (MI) will be hard to beat but added that the Gujarat Titans (GT) cannot be taken lightly in the Qualifier 2 of the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2023) as well. Both sides will take on each other at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday, May 26. The winner will play against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the final at the same venue on May 28 as well.

While previewing the game in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra added that the Mumbai Indians will be a tough nut to crack. However, he again shared that the Gujarat Titans are also a formidable team but he didn’t pick any favourite as well.

“It will not be easy to beat Mumbai. Gujarat are also a good team. Don’t take Gujarat lightly because they remained at No. 1 continuously throughout the tournament. Once they became No. 1, they didn’t go down after that and qualified extremely easily,” Aakash Chopra said. “There was no pressure on them to win the last match. Others’ fortunes were in their hands. So I feel it will be an extremely beautiful encounter. It is 50-50. I am not saying anything, whoever plays well should win, what difference does it make to us? We should get to see a good match.”

IPL 2023: Gujarat Titans have been in great form in the tournament

However, the Mumbai Indians have won six of their last eight games, including a comfortable 81-run win against the Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator. The Gujarat Titans topped the IPL 2023 points table with 10 wins but lost to CSK in Qualifier 1.

Aakash Chopra named the contest between the Gujarat Titans’ Mohammad Shami and the Mumbai Indians’ Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan to watch out for. However, he added that the GT seamer went wicketless in their last clash in Ahmedabad as well but Aakash Chopra pointed out that the veteran was virtually unplayable in that game too, saying:

“For me, the contest of the day that you would want to watch attentively is Mohammad Shami bowling to the two Mumbai Indians openers. When both these teams met last time, Shami was bowling under lights but he didn’t get a single wicket. However, if you had seen that spell, you would have said what a spell it was, that he should have got not one or two but four or five wickets. The batters weren’t able to touch the ball with their bats but it wasn’t his day, went wicketless. There was a catch in the end which Hardik Pandya dropped,” Aakash Chopra concluded.