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In good old CSK, young Ruturaj comes of age
Ruturaj Gaikwad has been a revelation for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2021.
In his innings against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium last week, Ruturaj Gaikwad had got going with a flowing drive through the off-side off Pat Cummins’ first over. A ball later, like any other fast bowler, Cummins pulled his length back to test Gaikwad's backfoot game. Gaikwad simply rocked on to the backfoot and pulled it for six.
With his next two fours, beautifully caressed through the off-side, first Prasidh Krishna and then Cummins, Gaikwad had the purists drooling over his eye-pleasing play – with that full stride forward and meeting the ball at the sweet spot to send it racing to the fence with a paint-brush touch. Then, his next two boundary hits off the fast bowlers were smashed off the backfoot when Andre Russell tried to test him with the short stuff in the eighth over.
Gaikwad had got out cheaply in his first three matches, but in the fourth game here, he had sent out a warning to the pace bowlers that he had both the front foot and backfoot game to take them on.
Against the spinners, there is no bigger test than Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Rashid Khan. On Wednesday evening at New Delhi, Gaikwad proved to be among the handful of batsmen who looked completely at ease against the leg-spinner. Rashid finally got him but after the CSK opener had taken him for three fours in a row.
The first three failures have been followed with three innings of sublime grace - 64 vs Knight Riders, 33 vs Royal Challengers Bangalore and 75 versus Sunrisers Hyderabad.
After the last game, his CSK coach Stephen Fleming called him “another fine Indian talent”.
When his opening partner Faf du Plessis asked him, “you are a very small guy but you hit the ball incredibly hard, what is the secret to that?” the batsman said: “I have been timing the ball well since a very young age...It was all about, batting practice and working on timing and it is kind of natural to me.”
A product of Dilip Vengsarkar’s Academy, Gaikwad’s game was set up at their facility at Chinchwad, Pune. “His driving just stands out because of precise footwork and good head position,” said the former India captain Vengsarkar. “I don’t watch much of IPL, but I watch his innings and then switch off the TV. He has all the shots in his book and he played really well. He improvises well.”
Before he went on to play 117 Tests, Vengsarkar had first made his name in Indian cricket because of his ability to play spin. For him, Gaikwad’s game against spin is based on his nimble footwork. “He comes out against spinners and plays. When you step out and reach to the pitch of the ball that is the hallmark of good batsmanship,” said the former India chairman of selectors.
CSK coach and former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said they are really excited about having Gaikwad and what he is doing for CSK. “We can’t speak more highly of him, we have rated him for a long time. One of the setbacks was having him down with Covid last year, which created a little bit of delay in terms of introducing him in the right spot, but now he is there and establishing himself,” said Fleming.
Fleming was referring to the last edition of the IPL when Gaikwad was laid low by Covid-19 at the start of the tournament. The Maharashtra batsman however did come back strongly to make a mark in his debut season. He ended IPL 2020 with three half-centuries in six matches for an aggregate of 204 runs at an average of 51. This season, after six matches, Gaikwad has 192 runs at 32 and a strike rate of almost 130. The 75 off 44 balls against SRH on Wednesday was his highest score in the tournament. Fleming is highly pleased with how he is combining with Faf du Plessis to provide strong starts. Against SRH, Gaikwad helped put on 129 runs for the opening stand off just 78 balls.
“The way they (openers) are playing, it is easy on the eye, it is low risk and very effective up to this point. It is not that the pressure goes, but the confidence grows and. We are very happy with the opening partnership. We were just hoping that Rutu would find some form (when he started with three low scores at the start) and get some scores, we had no doubt how good he is and how good he is going to be.”
The languid style of play has created extra interest in the way Gaikwad prepares, but the CSK coach said he just keeps it simple. “To be honest he is very self-sufficient, he is really low key. We got players who bat for a long time, he is really efficient with what he does. He has a strong purpose of what he needs to do, he is really simple in his gameplan, (while) batting is anything but simplistic but the method to train is very refreshing. He just backs his ability and keeps it very simple.”
The next step Vengsarkar would like to see in the 24-year-old player’s growth as a batsman is to be able finish off games. For the India team’s batting lynchpin of the 1980s, he had no business to get out against SRH. “What I expect him to do is play a long innings till the last over. Now he gets out for 50-60, he should take it till the end. That is what he has to learn. He didn't get out to a good ball, he made the mistake of playing inside the line of the ball (vs Rashid Khan). I had taken him to England with the Academy team when he was 17-18, and what pleased me most was he was getting big hundreds, 150 plus in 40 over games. That is what he has to continue to do.”
