Ruturaj Gaikwad's spark is morphing into a raging fire

19th September, 2021, the Chennai Super Kings are staring down the abyss when Ruturaj Gaikwad watches his captain MS Dhoni lace a pull shot straight down Trent Boult’s throat at deep backward square leg. While Dhoni is certainly not the force he once was, his dismissal is still enough to force a few shrugged shoulders among the CSK faithful.

Overs ago, Gaikwad had also witnessed his opening partner Faf du Plessis and Moeen Ali succumb to the tacky nature of the surface. Suresh Raina, too, had personified a cat on a hot tin roof and fell when his umpteenth attempt at an agricultural hoick spooned up towards backward point.

Thus, saying that CSK were in turmoil at that juncture would’ve been an understatement in itself, let alone another damning indication of how recent tales against the Mumbai Indians have transpired. This time out, though, there was something different about this CSK outfit.

There was a young, bustling lad ready to withstand adversity – a lad who could easily be mistaken for just another average cricket fan due to his lack of physique or indeed, the “spark” to be a genuine match-winner.

Yet, as Mark Twain once famously remarked, it isn’t the size of the dog in the fight that matters. Instead, it is the size of the fight in the dog that makes all the difference – an adage Gaikwad has unerringly proven over the past couple of IPL seasons but one that perhaps reached a crescendo at Dubai on Sunday.

Since making his debut for CSK in 2020, Gaikwad has been earmarked for success. Not just because of his talent but also because of his consistent returns in domestic cricket and for the India A side. Thus, when the Yellow Army’s campaign unraveled in the UAE in 2020 and Gaikwad was subsequently cast aside, plenty were left scratching their heads.

However, as has been the case with Gaikwad since his cricketing bow, he found a way to make things work. He went back to the drawing board and controlled most of CSK’s batting displays towards the end of the 2020 edition. So much so that he ended the season with three consecutive fifties, with each securing victory for the 2018 IPL champions.

A year later, though, there were signs that Gaikwad was falling back to his early 2020 habits. He had endured a relatively quiet domestic season and looked out of sorts during CSK’s opening three encounters – a tally of 20 runs from 3 innings drives that particular point home too.

Then, all of a sudden, when CSK needed it most against KKR, he forged an outstanding opening stand with Faf du Plessis and ensured that the Yellow Army continued generating a head of steam. They ultimately won that game and it wasn’t until a Kieron Pollard onslaught that CSK lost a bit of momentum.

Thus, there is enough to suggest that Gaikwad is an expert at coming up trumps when the chips are down, both for himself and his team. And, more importantly, enough to indicate that this knock against the Mumbai Indians might be the norm, rather than a glorious aberration.

Additionally, there are several things to like about Gaikwad, apart from his soft-spoken nature and inclination to learn anything related to cricket that is under the sun.

Over the years, India have been accused of being lackadaisical in the middle overs and have been guilty of not imposing themselves adequately. In Gaikwad, though, they might have a batter who isn’t just hard to displace in the phase but is also quite adept at turning the screw.

Gaikwad's numbers in the middle overs are stupendous

Ruturaj Gaikwad has been magnificent in the middle overs

Since the IPL began in 2008, countless world-class batters have taken the stage. Of all batters to have faced a minimum of 100 balls, Gaikwad has the best average in the middle overs (64.75). Remarkably, Gaikwad has the best strike rate in the same phase too.

And, even when considering all batters to have batted in the middle overs, he stands fifth overall in terms of average and retains the second highest strike rate.

The others on the list, namely JP Duminy, Mitchell Marsh, Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara, batted in an era where the middle overs directly correlated to building a solid foundation. Hence, it isn’t as big an achievement to have a better strike rate than them.

The interesting part, though, is that he ranks higher (SR terms) than AB de Villiers and Kane Williamson in the middle overs, despite there being a consensus that the aforementioned are two of the most dexterous batters to have graced the IPL.

Having said that, there is a slight caveat attached to Gaikwad’s approach because his risk-taking in the middle phase papers over his sluggishness at the start. He strikes at only 94.88 during the Power Play. However, his average in that period (33.4) indicates that he gets through the first six overs a third of the time.

Once he does that, he is incomparable. Not just because he scores much quicker – he strikes at 154.16 in the middle overs and 177.14 at the death, but also because he rarely gets dismissed after establishing himself at the crease.

Gaikwad scores quicker as the innings progresses

Furthermore, he seldom opts for lesser percentage shots, considering that he has a wide range of conventional strokes and usually relies on them to increase the tempo. It also allows him to play relatively risk-free cricket while maintaining the required run-rate.

Gaikwad also doesn’t lose his shape often – something that enables him to use every ounce of muscle in his body and transfer that energy into his stroke. The audacious scoop off Jasprit Bumrah was a prime example, where Gaikwad, despite attempting an unconventional stroke, never looked hustled.

Hence, it isn’t much of a surprise that he already has 6 fifty-plus scores in 14 innings. And he has remained unbeaten on three of those occasions, meaning that he has assumed responsibility and not shirked away from it.

In short, Gaikwad’s traits of standing toe-to-toe against adversity and plotting a roadmap to overcome it, all while not even flinching, is something that isn’t very ubiquitous and something that needs to be nurtured effectively, both by CSK and India.

Simply put, Ruturaj Gaikwad is a pretty special cricketer and one who can become a mainstay for India, especially if he keeps charting his current upward trajectory.

Back when Dhoni had quipped during the 2020 edition of the IPL that some of the youngsters, including Gaikwad were lacking the requisite “spark” to force the underperforming likes of Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav out of the door, it seemed that Gaikwad’s CSK career was at a crossroad.

From that standpoint alone, Gaikwad has done incredibly to not just win Dhoni’s trust but also prove to the veteran that there aren’t many Indian batters as mature as the current CSK opener.

Maybe then, it isn’t a stretch to hint that Gaikwad’s spark, which was deemed so less that he couldn’t get into the team for large swathes in 2020, has slowly but surely morphed into a raging fire. More tellingly, that fire seems blistering enough to burn down the cottages of even the IPL’s biggest gunslingers.