Gujarat Titans have been mighty impressive since making their IPL debut last year. For the second successive season, GT will be playing in the final and hoping to emulate the likes of Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings in winning two titles in a row.
GT topped IPL 2023 standings and were the first team to make it to the playoffs but lost to CSK in the first qualifier. However, the Hardik Pandya-led franchise bounced back to thrash MI in the second qualifier to punch their ticket for the final.
CSK coach Stephen Fleming has a lot of respect for GT and their coaching setup but feels that the task of winning titles in consecutive seasons is quite hard.
“So hard! It is impossible, it is going to be so hard for them (GT) to do it (laughs). No, they are a good side; you got to say really well done’ to what they have put together in a short space of time,” Fleming told reports on Saturday.
He added, “I like the coaching staff a lot, they are really balanced guys. Ashish, for all his talking, has got a really good grasp of the game, his enthusiasm is really high after working with him in Chennai. We have a huge amount of respect for what they have done but it is very hard to go back to back.”
CSK will be playing in their record-extending 10th IPL final and Fleming accepts the team has struggled to perform in away games since their preparations have been geared towards the conditions in Chennai.
“We geared ourselves up so well for Chennai that we did struggle with conditions at times in away games, so the finals were always a little bit of a challenge, and our record is about 50 per cent of winning the final,” Fleming said.
“It is maybe due to the style of the game we created a victim of being so good at home that we had to make adjustments when we went to a neutral venue,” he added.
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