At the 2019 IPL Player Auction, the Chennai Super Kings secured Ruturaj Gaikwad’s services at his base price of Rs 20 lakhs but he did not ...
At the 2019 IPL Player Auction, the Chennai Super Kings secured Ruturaj Gaikwad’s services at his base price of Rs 20 lakhs but he did not play a game in his first season.
Then, in 2020, he got a chance. He was stumped for a golden duck in his debut game and was run out after 5 off 10 balls in his second. In his third game, he got another duck. By then, the CSK season was already in shambles. So, he got another game. Suddenly, it all clicked for him – he scored three fifties in three games and became the first uncapped Indian player to hit three back-to-back half centuries in the history of tournament.
That flurry of fifties earned him the confidence of MS Dhoni and once you do that, the CSK skipper will very rarely leave you hanging. The 2021 season started almost as poorly for Gaikwad as the 2020 season – scores of 5, 5, 10 didn’t help when the experienced Robin Uthappa was calling his heels in the dugout.
But Dhoni stuck with him and now, Gaikwad is responding in kind. He kickstarted his season with a 64 against Kolkata Knight Riders and then got a 33 against...
