IPL 2026: Gujarat Titans turn to Matthew Hayden as batting coach

The Gujarat Titans have appointed former Australian opener Matthew Hayden as batting coach ahead of the Indian Premier League 2026 season.

The franchise, owned by Torrent Group and CVC Capital Partners, confirmed the move on Tuesday as it begins preparations for the upcoming campaign. Hayden joins a support staff group that includes Director of Cricket Vikram Solanki and head coach Ashish Nehra.

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The wider coaching set-up also features assistant coaches Parthiv Patel, Aashish Kapoor, Matthew Wade, Naeem Amin and Narender Negi.

Hayden, a World Cup winner and one of the most dominant opening batters of his era, arrives with a long international career and experience of modern T20 batting methods. The franchise expects his presence to add further depth to its support staff as it prepares for the 2026 season.

Speaking about the appointment, Solanki said the move comes at an important stage in the team’s journey.

“Matthew’s appointment comes at a pivotal phase in our journey. As a franchise committed to excellence and long-term success, we are constantly focused on strengthening our cricketing ecosystem. His experience at the highest level, coupled with his ability to mentor emerging talent, will be instrumental in shaping our batting identity for the seasons ahead,” Solanki said.

Hayden also shared his thoughts after joining the Ahmedabad-based franchise.

“Good batting applies pressure. Great batting owns the game. That’s the standard we want to set at Gujarat Titans,” Hayden said.

During his international career, Hayden represented Australia national cricket team in 273 matches across formats and scored more than 15,000 international runs. He also played a major role in several ICC tournament triumphs for Australia. His powerful yet technically sound batting approach helped shape early powerplay dominance in white-ball cricket.

Hayden also had a stint in the IPL, playing 32 matches in the tournament with a style suited to the league’s high-intensity format.

Matthew Hayden had earlier served as Pakistan's team mentor for ICC T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022. This was followed after he was the side's batting consultant in the 2021 edition.

The 2025 campaign marked the fourth season for the Gujarat Titans in the IPL. The side was captained by Shubman Gill and coached by Nehra. Gujarat finished third in the league stage and moved into the Eliminator in the playoffs, where they were beaten by the Mumbai Indians.

In that season, Sai Sudharsan scored the most runs for Gujarat with 759, while Prasidh Krishna led the bowling charts with 25 wickets. Both figures were the highest by any player in the 2025 IPL season.

The franchise had earlier lifted the IPL trophy in its debut season in 2022 under captain Hardik Pandya. Gujarat followed that title-winning run with a runners-up finish in the 2023 season.