Aakash Chopra believes that the Gujarat Titans (GT) may wish to give Sherfane Rutherford more playing time by moving him up to No. 3 in the match against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Thursday, May 22, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, ahead of Jos Buttler.

In the present Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, Gujarat’s top three batsmen—Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, and Jos Buttler—have been responsible for the majority of their runs. The Orange Cap is held by Sudharsan, who scored 617 runs in 12 innings. Shubman, meanwhile, is just behind him with 601 runs from as many games. In contrast, Buttler has amassed 500 runs in 11 innings of play. The England batsman-wicketkeeper will be away on national service, thus he won’t be available for the playoffs.

With Buttler out of the lineup, Rutherford, who has been batting at number four this season, might have to bat one down in the playoffs. Although the Titans’ next two games are crucial, Chopra believed that allowing Rutherford to bat at No. 3 against LSG will benefit the previous champions more in the long run.

“They are competing for the top two. They still have two games to go. They can solidify their top ranking if they win both games. They’ll score twenty-two points. Because they are on odd points, Bengaluru and Punjab can only reach 21 if they win their remaining games. Thus, this group will examine it from that perspective,” Chopra stated on his YouTube channel.

Since the top three have scored the most runs for this club, there will be a little more attention paid to them once more. The last game didn’t provide the No. 3 a chance. This is where you might see Jos Butter. “You will need Sherfane Rutherford more in the playoffs, so another idea would be to give him more playing time,” he continued.

Gujarat is currently sitting pretty at the top of the table with 18 points from 12 games and has already qualified for the playoffs.

Scales are massively tilted towards GT: Aakash Chopra

Chopra questioned whether Gujarat should have Gerald Coetzee in the lineup against LSG instead of Kagiso Rabada. The cricketer-turned-commentator said that the Shubman-led side are the overwhelming favourites to win on Thursday.

“Kagiso Rabada will also not be there. So, do you want to play Gerald Coetzee in this game? These things will definitely be in their minds. Of course, the scales are massively tilted towards Gujarat. They are playing at home. They are the much, much better team,” he said in the same video.

Chopra praised Shubman’s leadership skills and reckoned that the hosts will not make too many changes to their tactics against LSG.

“Shubman Gill’s captaincy has been excellent thus far. In bowling, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj and Sai Kishore – everybody has played their part. I don’t see them changing their tactics or their performance at all. They are not going to drop their guard,” Chopra observed.