Momentum with Titans as red-hot Buttler squares up against familiar faces
Middle order will be in focus for both Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals, who are coming off wins
Big picture: Similar teams, different results
Form guide
Gujarat Titans WWW (Last three matches, most recent first)Rajasthan Royals WWL
New loyalties
Team news and likely XIIs
The big question
In the spotlight: Sherfane Rutherford and Jofra Archer
Pitch and conditions
Stats and trivia
- Buttler has a favourable head-to-head record against Archer in T20s: 89 runs in 47 balls for two dismissals.
- Mohammed Siraj has found his rhythm again. He had only five wickets in the powerplay last season. He's already gone past that mark now, having played ten fewer matches. His pace is up - 50% his balls in the first six overs are 140-plus kph. All that sets him up even better for his contest with Samson, which, in the IPL, reads 36 runs in 31 balls and three dismissals.
- A battle with RR might be coming at the perfect time for Rashid. He looked in decent nick against SRH (4-0-31-0) and has the wood over Riyan Parag (24 runs, 28 balls, two dismissals) in the IPL and Shimron Hetmyer (79 runs, 63 balls, six dismissals) in all T20 cricket.
- GT's top order doing as well as they have has meant a set batter is always around to take advantage of the death overs. Their run rate of 13.31 is the second-best among all teams in this phase of play this season.
- RR's spinners have picked up 11 wickets this year, behind only Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Maheesh Theekshana has even coped with the burden of bowling in the death, picking up a wicket and giving just 18 runs in 18 balls. Wanindu Hasaranga has only been used in the middle overs and he's been effective enough that only two other bowlers have more wickets than he does - R Sai Kishore (8) and Noor Ahmad (8).
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo