Gujarat Titans Captain Hardik Pandya, who has also captained India and ODI cricket and is also currently the regular captain of the T20 international side, on Friday said that young batsmen Ruturaj Gaikwad is going to do wonders to Indian cricket when he is going to get us opportunities in the future.
The right-handed Chennai Super Kings opening batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad made a stunning start to Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 campaign with a stunning knock of 92 from just 52 balls which included nine sixes and four boundaries. His innings was solely responsible for taking Chennai Super Kings to a respectable total of 178/7, which they were not able to defend as Gujarat Titans recorded a victory by five wickets and two balls to spare.
Gujarat Titans Captain Hardik Pandya said after the match but it was becoming difficult for his bowlers to bowl at Ruturaj Gaikwad, who was hitting even the good balls out of the park.
Hardik Pandya said, ”I genuinely felt that we can’t err at him at all; some of the shots that he played, they weren’t too bad balls. They were actually good balls, that made the big difference and more challenging for us as a bowling unit and captain.
“Full credit to him, if he continues batting like this, he’s going to do wonders to Indian cricket. I’m sure he has the game, when the time comes I’m sure the Indian cricket team will also back him enough,”
the Gujarat Titans captain said.
Adding further praise on Ruturaj Gaikwad who has been a force for Chennai Super Kings in their batting line-up, Hardik Pandya said,
“To be very honest, we all know the kind of player he is, at one point of time it looked like CSK would score 220-230. We were finding it difficult as to what areas we should bowl because he’s an all-round cricketer, plays cricketing shots.”
Chennai Super Kings coach and former captain of the New Zealand international cricket team, Stephen Fleming said that Ruturaj Gaikwad is an outstanding talent.
Stephen Fleming said,
”He’s an outstanding talent, really untapped. We rate him so highly, when you see him playing like that, he’s a class player. He’s got power, got touch and only good things will happen to him. Tonight was an exhibition. He was disappointed [to be dismissed for 92], he could’ve picked on a little more to give us an extra 20 runs in the end but the 90 runs he got was a pleasure to watch.”
Having lost the first match of the season, CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said,
“We were slightly short. Another 15-20 runs would have been good. We all know there would be a little bit of dew. Also it was a 7.30pm start so the ball holds on a little early on.”
MS Dhoni added,
“Also we could have batted properly in the middle overs as opposed to trying to muscle the ball. Rutu is a pleasure to watch. He has groomed himself very well, and makes the eight decisions under pressure. We can’t afford to bowl no-balls. That is something in our control.”