Last year, too, the two teams started off their respective IPL campaigns against each other

On the evening of March 31, the Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans will face off in their first season opener of the 2026 IPL campaign. For both sides, the match will serve as a rematch of last season’s opening game, in which these two teams began their 2025 campaign. For Punjab Kings, it will all be about repeating the theatrics of 2025, whereas for Gujarat Titans, it will be about winning the season opener, as they have done so since their IPL debut.

GT’s first game habit

Since 2022, when the Gujarat Titans made their IPL debut, the team has won all their opening matches except one. In 2022, the team secured a five-wicket victory by successfully defending against the Lucknow Super Giants.

43 runs to win in last 5 over with 7 wickets in hand & Gujrat Titans is able to pull this off.

I will say this is the clear case of robbery.Only one Team was expected to win was Mumbai indians but God & Ashish Nehra have some other plans for Shubman Gillpic.twitter.com/i1z3ZpWBAk

— Sujeet Suman (@sujeetsuman1991) March 24, 2024

2023 saw the Gujarat Titans pip the Chennai Super Kings by five wickets, but the Kings eventually lifted the trophy at the end of the tourney. The following year, i.e., 2024, the Titans won their first game of the season by defeating the Mumbai Indians by six wickets.

Breaking the rhythm

However, the Titans' first-game winning streak came to an abrupt end when the Punjab Kings put on a brilliant batting display in their season opener last season. Priyansh Arya started off with 47 runs off 23 balls, followed by Shreyas Iyer’s 97 runs in 42 balls, whereas Shashank Singh’s 44 runs in 16 balls ended the innings on a high note.

PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer master class. Shreyas Iyer scored his highest IPL score 97* in 42 balls against captain Shubman Gill' Gujrat Titans at Ahmedabad on 2025.

Shreyas Iyer will coming for IPL 2026pic.twitter.com/aOjor7UIkR

— CricPal (@AnupPalAgt) March 16, 2026

However, the Titans fought fiercely, with Sai Sudharsan contributing 74 runs, Shubman Gill adding 33 runs, Jos Buttler scoring 54 runs, and Shehane Rutherford finishing with 46 runs in 28 balls. The collective effort saw the Titans score 232 runs but lose the game by 11 runs to the Kings’ 243.

On Tuesday evening, for Punjab, it will be about continuing from where they left off last season, whereas for the Titans, it will be about winning the first game to gain a confidence boost for the remainder of the season.

Possible records on the cardx

Head-to-head, there is a tie between the sides, as both have won three matches each out of six games played so far. The seventh game between the two sides could witness two new records.

Arshdeep Singh leads the wicket charts in the history of Punjab Kings 🔥

He is just three wickets away from becoming the first PBKS bowler to reach 100 wickets 🤞#Cricket #PBKS #IPL2026 #ArshdeepSingh pic.twitter.com/BvP9KnabtM

— Sportskeeda (@Sportskeeda) March 23, 2026

Punjab Kings bowler Arshdeep Singh has 97 wickets for the franchise, so if he grabs three more, he will be the first Punjab bowler to have 100 wickets for the Kings. On the other hand, Shubman Gill has 2,449 runs for the Gujarat Titans, which means that if he gets 51 runs or more, he will become the first Titans batter to have 2,500 IPL runs.