Ruturaj Gaikwad the Emerging Talent

Maharashtra skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad has become the talk of the town courtesy of his batting heroics in the calendar year 2021. After a scintillating show in IPL 2021, he is now ruling the ongoing edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021. The right-handed batsman has smashed his third consecutive century for Maharashtra. With three hundreds smashed in just four days of the BCCI 50-over domestic season, he has made heads turn. 

The 24-year old exhibited yet another fine show with the willow during Kerala vs Maharashtra game in Rajkot. Opening for his side, he amassed 124 runs from 129 balls with a strike rate of 96.12. In the previous games of the recently begun tournament- Ruturaj Gaikwad scores were 136 (112) against Madhya Pradesh and 154 not out (143) versus Chhattisgarh.

In his three outings so far, the prolific batter has aggregated 414 runs and is the highest run-getter in the contest so far. In addition to his batting performances, he has duly fulfilled the duties as the captain for Maharashtra which he was bestowed with before the start of the tournament. As skipper, Ruturaj Gaikwad has led Maharashtra to two wins in the two matches. There is no denying that the prolific player is breathing fire in this phase of his life.

The opening batsman was retained by his IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings for a whopping price of six crores ahead of next year’s mega auction. Besides, Ruturaj Gaikwad was the highest run-getter in IPL 2021 with a tally of 635 runs. He has become the youngest player to clinch the orange cap. A free-stroking opener whose game revolves around a fluid technique, Ruturaj Gaikwad first burst into the scene during the 2016-17 Vijay Hazare Trophy when he ended as the third highest run-scorer in the tournament.

His ability to be solid and play risk-free cricket, and yet score at a fair clip caught attention immediately. Right from his childhood days, Ruturaj Gaikwad was a prodigy who was tipped to make it big. He rose through the age group system of the Maharashtra team, and consistently made it to the India A side as well. As of now, his success rate has been much higher in List A, where he is consistent and also makes his runs at a healthy strike-rate.

However, given his temperament and technique, Ruturaj Gaikwad should be able to better his already reasonable returns in First-class cricket. His batting revolves around deft touches and timing, than the modern day power hitting module that you see with most young batsmen. He got picked up by Chennai Super Kings in the 2019 IPL season and although he is yet to be picked in the XI, the youngster should be in the future plans of the management.

Before IPL 2020, when Ruturaj Gaikwad spent 22 days in isolation, it was a zoom call with Dhoni that kept him going. “Face it with a smile,” was the advice then. Impressive half-centuries late in the tournament is what bought him time in the eleven, head coach Stephen Fleming had said after scores of of 5, 5 and 10 in IPL 2021. He has really been an amazing emerging cricketer and the future of Team India. He has been giving great performances in all the competitions. Gaikwad knew he was going to get a decent run even with the experienced Robin Uthappa waiting for his turn.

And even if he had lacked confidence, Dhoni knew he was set for a score at some stage. “Ruturaj is somebody who has shown his class in the last IPL,” Dhoni said after the game. “You always need to assess where he is mentally. Once when he was off guard, I just asked him ‘how are you feeling today?’. When you put a question like that, you wait for the reactions, you see what’s in his eyes. There was enough in his reactions to suggest he wasn’t rattled.”