Ruturaj Gaikwad has been a part of India’s ODI and T20I setup for a while now. He made his debut for the Chennai team in the year 2020 and has only scaled upwards, since. While he has made a name for himself in the cash-rich league, Gaikwad hasn’t been able to replicate those performances for India.
His teammate Robin Uthappa, however, has backed him to go big in the International arena if he gets a consistent run. Albeit he has been adding strength to the Indian bench, he hasn’t really played a lot of games, of late.
The Maharashtra-based batter did exceptionally well for the Chennai team in the year 2020 and went big in the year 2021. Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis joined hands to become a deadly opening combo that year and helped Chennai clinch the title for the fourth time. Robin Uthappa stressed that the youngster needs to be backed and given more opportunities.
He shed light on Gaikwad’s domestic records and reckons that the batter can emulate the same in International matches as well.
“Ruturaj is not getting those number of games…if he gets five games in a row, he’s going to perform,” Uthappa said to Sony Network.
Uthappa recalled Gaikwad’s initial struggle with the Chennai team and how he bounced back from that. Ruturaj Gaikwad did not have a great start to the 2020 edition of the Indian T20 League. However, he bounced back to produce three consecutive fifties in the later part of that edition. He made his T20I debut for India against Sri Lanka on July 28, 2021.
Ruturaj Gaikwad’s International career:
Ruturaj Gaikwad has played 9 T20 internationals so far for India. He got to play in eight among the nine matches and managed to bag one fifty out of those. The batter has not been able to make a mark in the international arena so far, averaging around 17.
The 25-year-old has been waiting for an opportunity in the ODI format for quite a long time now. And many former cricketers have backed him to go big in the 50-over format. With Shubhman Gill impressing as an opener and KL Rahul making a return, the road for his debut is quite tough as of now.
