'Titans' of Gujarat brace up for 'Royal' fight from Rajasthan's rockstars

Ahmedabad: Two leaders, who are minefields of talent in their own right, one team that has made a mockery of all betting odds and the other trying to complete a cycle that started 15 summers back, IPL final between Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals is about this and much more.

When IPL started over two months back, nobody would have believed that two captains walking out for toss in the title clash will be Hardik Pandya and Sanju Samson.

'Remember the Titans', a 2000 Hollywood film headlined by Denzel Washington is considered one of the best sports films on the proverbial underdog story, which always has a capital.

It is not known if Titans skipper Hardik has watched it but for him and head coach Ashish Nehra, this journey of two months has been nothing short of spectacular. They have made a lot of people eat a humble pie because many, including experts, termed them a team of no-hopers post auction.

A team that looked like a rag-tag outfit with only a few good players like David Miller, considered past their sell by date, or one-match wonders like Rahul Tewatia, it didn't really look good on paper. But then you wouldn't call cricket a "game of glorious uncertainties" if everything would be decided on paper.

A fit-again Hardik took to leadership like fish takes to water and showed the way with his performances and the reason why he will always be an asset for Indian cricket. Miller, who played his best cricket at least five years back, showed his 2.0 version that stunned one and all.

Tewatia showed that those five sixes in Sharjah wasn't a mere flash in the pan. Rashid Khan knew that he would be read well, so he became all the more parsimonious. Wriddhiman Saha after Rahul Dravid's hard-talk had reached a dead-end in his career but got a new lease of life and at least one more season to look forward to.

Gujarat as a state has not been known for its sporting exploits. It produced players like Parthiv Patel or one of India's greatest ever pacers in Jasprit Bumrah but just like Tamil Nadu never had an emotional connect with a team before CSK appeared in the horizon, same is the case with Gujarat.

Come Sunday, expect a partisan and vociferous crowd to chant "Aava De" and that's the impact that Titans have had on their fans. History will always throw examples that sporting teams bind a community and perhaps Titans can strike that chord with the Gujaratis.

For Titans, if this is about carving a niche in-front of home crowd, Rajasthan would like to do it for someone, who would be watching up from the stars.

Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya (captain), Rashid Khan, Shubman Gill, Mohammed Shami, David Miller, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Rahul Tewatia, R. Sai Kishore, Yash Dayal, Alzarri Joseph, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Lockie Ferguson, Abhinav Manohar, Noor Ahmad, Dominic Drakes, Jayant Yadav, Vijay Shankar, Darshan Nalkande, Pradeep Sangwan, B. Sai Sudarshan, Gurkeerat Singh Mann and Varun Aaron

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (captain), Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Anunay Singh, James Neesham, Corbin Bosch, Kuldeep Sen, Karun Nair, Rassie van der Dussen, Dhruv Jurel, Tejas Baroka, Kuldip Yadav and Shubham Garhwal.