RAIPUR: For all the stick that they get for their decisions, India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar do get some things right.When Ruturaj Gaikwad, a specialist opener in white-ball cricket, was asked to bat in the middle-order, and fill in the two down slot left vacant after Shreyas Iyer’s absence due to spleen injury, the critics were quick to find fault with the call. Many felt that regular middle-order batters Rishabh Pant and Tilak Varma were more suited for that position. It was also pointed out that batting out of position was injustice to the 28-year-old.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Indeed, for someone who has opened all his life in List A and ODI cricket, batting at No. 4 can be a slightly tricky task. The murmurs around Gaikwad’s batting slot became more of a talking point after he was out for just eight off 14 balls in the first ODI at Ranchi, as Devald Brevis plucked a stunner at point to send him packing. However, after they picked Gaikwad on the basis of his brilliant form for India A against South Africa A – he made scores of 117, 68 not out and 25 in the One-day series at Rajkot – the selection committee and the team management were convinced that the Maharashtra and Chennai Super Kings captain was just too good a batter to be left out of the XI.Vindicating the faith of the decision-makers in Indian cricket at the moment, the attractive batter smashed a stroke-filled 83-ball 105 – his maiden, blazing ODI century coming off just 77 balls, in the second ODI at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium on Wednesday. Almost matching Virat Kohli (102) shot-for-shot, Gaikwad shared a 195-run third wicket stand in just 156 balls with the legend to help take India to 358 for five, which didn’t prove enough as South Africa trumped the hosts by four wickets in a high-scoring game.
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Clearing the air around the issue later, Gaikwad asserted that the fact that the team management entrusted a specialist opener like him to bat at No. 4 in ODI cricket was a “privilege” for him. No wonder he took to his new role like fish to water.“”[The team management] told me that I would be batting at No. 4 this series. I feel it’s a privilege to have that kind of confidence from the management towards an opener. So I took it that way,” Gaikwad told the media, before explaining his batting process in the ODIs. “In the One-day format, even when I was opening, I have always tried to make sure I am able to bat till the 45th over and capitalise after that. Somehow, I knew how to play in between (overs) 11 to 40, how to rotate strike (and) what are the boundary options. I was pretty much confident about how I can go through. It was just a matter of how I can play my first 10-15 balls and after that the process remains the same. I have been working really hard, and obviously been in good touch as well. So I wanted to make sure that whenever I am set, I make it a big one,” Gaikwad told the media here after the match.For someone who has scored 18 List A hundred – a few seasons ago he scored three centuries on the trot in the Vijay Hazare Trophy – Gaikwad’s ODI CV was extremely underwhelming before his Raipur century – 123 runs in seven matches, at an average of 17.57. Those numbers hardly do justice to his tremendous ability, but the man also suffered due to a combination of injury, illness and a stiff competition in India’s white-ball batting scenario.Before this series, Gaikwad last played an ODI for India in 2023, against South Africa at Gqeberha.In the past two years, he has fallen behind the pecking order as opener, with Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill being India’s first choice, and Yashasvi Jaiswal being the third opener. He got a chance in this series only because Gill and Iyer were injured. “It is better if you don’t think too much about all these things because (if) you are not in the present and whatever matches are in front of you, you don’t have that much focus and that much preparation. Obviously, in the last Vijay Hazare Trophy, I wasn’t able to make that many runs (194 runs in nine matches@32.33). Some things were going on in my mind, but after that, this year I thought that whichever match it is, whether it is a club game or any red-ball (or) white-ball format I play, I will make sure to stay consistent,” Gaikwad said.“If I get an opportunity, (it’s) well and good, even if I don’t get an opportunity, it is still fine. I realise that it is my duty to keep scoring runs as much as possible and if things happen (again it’s) well and good, if not, still well and good,” he added.Understandably, Gaikwad rates his century in the second ODI as the best knock of his career. “I would say yes, because obviously batting at No 4 was also a challenge for me,” he admitted.During his mammoth partnership with Kohli, Gaikwad had the best seat in the house, as he watched Kohli unleash his magical shots from the non-striker’s end.Two of Kohli’s thunderous straight drives, in fact, almost knocked Gaikwad’s head off, as he took evasive action at the last the batter took evasive action at the last minute.Talking about how it was to bat with the man who had stroked 53 ODI centuries, Gaikwad said, “I have been able to witness him since last one week now. Whatever practice sessions we have had, he is batting unbelievably well… the amount of time he has and how he is able to convert it in the match as well. Mostly, I was trying to be in my zone and not really think about how he is batting or how he is able to score runs.“The chat in between was very clear. We had set a 5-10-run target and [discussed] how to manoeuvre the gaps or how to hit those boundaries, how we can rotate strike. So the chat was around that. I think we had really good running between the wickets as well. Obviously, you dream of these kinds of moments and to be able to have that kind of partnership, I really enjoyed it a lot.”A captain at Maharashtra and CSK but still trying to seal his place in India’s IDI team, Gaikwad knows that making runs is what matters in the end. “Nothing changes, whether I am captain of a state team, or (an) IPL team, or whether I am just a player. Even if I go and play domestic now, there is a lot of expectation from me — even from my team — to not only score 100 or get those 50-60 runs but get those extra runs of what caliber I have,” he said.During his fabulous knock against the Proteas, the ease with which Gaikwad hammered left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj gives a hope that in him, India have someone who can tackle the challenge of batting on turning tracks in Tests at home- a skill that India’s batters seem to be rapidly losing.
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