Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad Feels The Weight of Captaincy

The Chennai Super Kings are a side known to stick to templates. Over the years, they always looked to bat through and take games deep. In recent times, though, that template has been upped with favoring match-ups and some more positive stroke play. Last season, the line-up was explosive all through. Four games in, though, CSK are having concerns upfront with Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Gaikwad, not the most explosive, is often seen as a player who can smoothly shift gears, making the transition between the innings look so easy. The lack of runs is not a big concern, but his strike rate is a silently growing issue. With Rachin Ravindra on the attack, Ruturaj Gaikwad has taken a backseat, but his lack of intent seems to be going a step too far.

His strike rate in the first ten balls is the lowest among openers, along with Shikhar Dhawan. In Gaikwad‘s case, though, form is not the concern. Lack of intent and attacking shots are his drawbacks. He was excellent last year when he went after the bowling early on, with Devon Conway holding the other end.

Starting slow, regardless, is something relatively normal for him. The speed which is normal for him, has been missing, though. Against Hyderabad, Ruturaj Gaikwad was run-a-ball for his first 13 runs. The next seven had him make 13, but he was dismissed in that period, leaving CSK in a hole. He took time to get in but could not capitalize on the time taken to get set. The smooth transition in gears as a result went missing with Rutaraj Gaikwad following a similar pattern in the four games.

His style has been stark in contrast to how other teams are going as well. The average powerplay strike rate this season has been 9.27. At Hyderabad, in particular, the pitch required hard hitting against the new ball with the track getting slow later on. Both sides slowed down against spin with only Shivam Dube managing to control some damage through a blinder for CSK. Hyderabad, though was ahead of the game with Abhishek Sharma making full use of the hard new ball to get SRH ahead of the game.

Rachin Ravindra struggling in the previous two games adds to the pressure on Gaikwad as well. Ravindra produced blinders twice in the first two games but a more aggressive support from Gaikwad could help reduce the pressure on Ravindra and the upcoming batters, especially with a line-up that has MS Dhoni down at number 8, showing great batting depth.

The two losses showed in large how Gaikwad could change CSK’s fortunes. They need more intent from him, which is missing. With pitches tiring, the powerplay will be all the more important. Gaikwad though will not be able to afford slow starts, and will have to get his act together if he is to help CSK back to winning ways before its too late. His form though and approach continues to remain a concern that needs some work to be done on it.