IPL 2020 : “Ruturaj Gaikwad proved he is the right player,” Stephen Fleming mighty impressed with Gaikwad’s resurgence

IPL 2020 : “Ruturaj Gaikwad proved he is the right player,” Stephen Fleming mighty impressed with Gaikwad’s resurgence

Ruturaj Gaikwad

Ruturaj Gaikwad
Ruturaj Gaikwad

It is always better late than never. Chennai Super Kings are glad to have finally found the “spark” in young Ruturaj Gaikwad even though it has come a bit too late in the season. Opening the innings, replacing the likes of Shane Watson and Faf du Plesis, Gaikwad has gone on to hammer two consecutive fifties. It was a rough start for him as he had only 5 runs from his first three innings, including two ducks. But the promotion to the top of the order has worked wonders for him.

His mature knocks at the top of the innings have provided the much-needed stability for CSK’s unreliable middle order to capitalise on. This is clearly reflected in the way the side has chased in both the games where Gaikwad fired.

Happy that he has grabbed the opportunity

Ruturaj Gaikwad

CSK coach Stephen Fleming is ecstatic to see the youngster fire. Fleming adds that although they regret not sending the Maharastra batter up the order early enough, they are happy that he grabbed the opportunity when it came his way.

“He has done well in the last couple of games. We are happy that he has taken the opportunity. We look back at the missed opportunities when he got COVID. He missed out the pre-season, he came back after about 4-5 weeks in isolation. We tried to get him involved but he was a long way from being ready. So we’re just happy now to create an opportunity and he has shown us that he’s the right player,” Fleming said during the post-match press conference.

Fleming adds that losing the set batsmen, Gaikwad and Ambati Rayudu, in such comfortable positions surely made them nervous. But the former Kiwi international is happy to get wins under the belt even though they are out of the qualifying race for playoffs.

“We were playing well, certainly we lost wickets and partnership of Rayudu and Ruturaj. But we felt we got ourselves in a position where we were probably favourites to win… Mixed emotions, when you are sitting here and out of the competition, you are watching not as nervous. Very pleased to get the win,” he said.

CSK registered their second consecutive win in IPL 2020 as they overpowered KKR by 6 wickets thanks to Gaikwad’s 72 and Ravindra Jadeja‘s quickfire 31.

Also read : IPL 2020 CSK vs KKR: CSK defeat KKR by 6 wickets after last-ball finish from Ravindra Jadeja