IPL 2026 - GT vs RR - Ravi Bishnoi - Worked on 'physical, technical and mental aspects' after 'difficult' 2025

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In the 11th over, the Gujarat Titans (GT) chase of 211 looked on track with a well-set B Sai Sudarsan at the crease and a host of big-hitters to come. Enter Ravi Bishnoi, who picked up three wickets in the next six balls he bowled across two overs, including that of Sai Sudharsan, to turn the game on its head and turn it the way of Rajasthan Royals (RR). Bishnoi finished with 4 for 41, earning the Player-of-the-Match award, and credited his turnaround to work on the “physical, technical and mental aspects” of his game after a challenging IPL 2025.

“Last season was difficult. But I tried to stick to my processes. I had one weakness: if my length was wrong then I was getting hit for fours and sixes,” Bishnoi said on the broadcast after picking up his award. “That’s what I was trying [to rectify]. I played a whole season of domestic cricket and worked on perfecting my lengths. Hitting my lengths made it difficult for batters – when I was too full I got hit today too.

“Mental, technical and physical… [I worked on] all three [aspects]. I’ve been putting the physical work too, in off-season, between games and in domestic.”

One of the success stories of the IPL, Bishnoi finished as Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) highest wicket-taker with 16 wickets in IPL 2023. But he endured a rough 2025, his worst IPL season, where he got only nine wickets in 11 games at an average of 44.55 and an economy of 10.83. LSG released him before the IPL 2026 auction, and he was bought by RR for INR 7.20 crore.

On Saturday, Bishnoi sent back Sai Sudharsan in the 11th over, and then got rid of both Glenn Phillips and Washington Sundar in the 13th, before finishing his day with the wicket of Rahul Tewatia in the 15th. Barring Phillips, all his victims were left-hand batters.

“One side of the field had a longer boundary, and they had a lot of left-hand batters, so I was trying to bowl googlies to them from middle and leg, which would make it difficult for them to go over the leg side [the longer side],” he explained at the press conference after the game. “A couple of their batters fell in that trap too. So the plan for the left-hand batters was to take the ball away and try to make them hit to the longer side. Both Sai and Washy were dismissed like that. That was my tactic, which I had discussed with the team and with Dhruv [Jurel, the wicketkeeper].”

The plan came off against Sai Sudharsan and Washington, but it was the wicket of Tewatia that pleased Bishnoi the most. It was at a crucial stage in the game, with a back-of-a-length googly that forced a top edge that was pouched by Jurel.

“My favourite wickets were all four but Rahul bhai‘s wicket towards the end was important since it came at that particular time,” he said. “He is known to be a finisher. If he hadn’t gone out then the game could’ve gone any direction.”
It went RR’s way in the end, and the last-over hero was Tushar Deshpande, who bowled a series of yorkers and near-yorkers to concede just four runs and give his team a six-run win.

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