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Former England pace bowler Stuart Broad has criticized Gujarat Titans for their decision to alter Jos Buttler's batting position in their IPL 2026 final defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

GT were beaten by five wickets in the final at the hands of RCB as the Bangalore franchise successfully defended their IPL crown. One of the major errors made by GT, according to Broad, in the final was to change the batting order of Jos Buttler, who normally bats at No. 3 for the team.

The decision was made when GT captain Shubman Gill was removed early for 10, but instead of Buttler, who had been batting at No. 3 throughout the IPL 2026 tournament, GT decided to send Nishant Sindhu at 3. Sindhu, however, scored only 20 from 18 balls before being dismissed, failing to score freely.

Buttler came out at No. 4 and failed to make much of an impact on the innings, scoring 19 off 23 deliveries and it was too little for GT, who finished on 155/8 and ultimately saw RCB chase it down comfortably with two overs left in the bag.

Appearing on the For the Love of Cricket podcast, Broad was perplexed as to why Gujarat Titans felt the need to tinker with a winning combination for the biggest game of the year.

"Buttler batted at 3 throughout the tournament. And then came the final, batting first; he moved down to bat at 4. I can't get my head around why you changed the role in the final. Even AB de Villiers said it was a defensive move."

Buttler had an extremely successful season in the IPL 2026 tournament, finishing with 526 runs from 17 matches and striking at a rate of 152.46 at No. 3 for Gujarat Titans, but the altered role seemed to have taken the sting out of their batting line-up following the loss of Shubman Gill early.

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Steven Finn, former England pace bowler too expressed his bewilderment after the choice. He said that Buttler was no stranger to the new ball as he had opened the batting for the English side for years.

"Buttler dropping down was surprising, as it's not like he's not exposed to the new ball, having opened so much for England. It does seem slightly curious. The only rationale behind the move was the think tank feeling the pitch was going to get better and having the guy at No. 3 to just stay at the crease until the wicket got better for batting, allowing Jos to catch up and do his thing."

Broad highlighted one more aspect which hampered Gujarat Titans' bid for a repeat title run, which was the constant successful opening stand between Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan during the league stages. Their middle-order rarely got a chance to bat under pressure, and when both of them faltered in the finale, the middle order could not respond and RCB capitalized on that for their IPL 2026 triumph.