Chennai Super Kings (CSK) explosive opener, Ruturaj Gaikwad reveals what MS Dhoni advised him on his IPL debut for the franchise. CSK paid a base price of 20 lakhs for Ruturaj in the 2019 IPL auction. The Pune-born impressed the whole world with his elegant style and smooth shot execution. He was later retained by the franchise after a successful show in the 14th edition of the tournament.
IPL 2021 was a massive turning point in Gaikwad’s career. He smashed an unbeaten maiden century against Rajasthan Royals. He also made a small yet substantial contribution in the final against Kolkata Knight Riders. CSK ended up winning the tournament. Ruturaj Gaikwad won the orange cap in the same season. He ended up as the leading run-scorer of the tournament with 635 runs in total. Aside from the orange cap, he was also named the IPL 14th season’s emerging player.
His splendid IPL stint fast-tracked his route to the senior national team. He made his international debut against Sri Lanka on 28th July 2021. Ruturaj Gaikwad, while interacting with the students at the Super Kings Academy, reveals the one piece of advice he got from CSK skipper, MS Dhoni.
“You just need to be in that moment and enjoy it,” MS told Ruturaj Gaikwad
Ruturaj Gaikwad said that he got clear advice from the skipper. He revealed that MS Dhoni told him to just be in the moment and enjoy his game out in the middle. Ruturaj also said that it’s a huge achievement for him to be representing such a great franchise.
“When I made my debut, MS Dhoni was very clear. He said to enjoy the game. Representing this franchise is a huge achievement, a lot of great players have been part of this dressing room, and a lot of greats have been involved with this franchise. So, I think he just said that ‘you just need to be in that moment and enjoy it,”
“I really need to be thankful and grateful that I was in a really good team which has a very good environment. Also, having M.S Dhoni around me helped a lot as well. In that process, I never felt that I was having a setback”
“Yes, I had failures,” Ruturaj opens up on his failures at the franchise
Ruturaj Gaikwad further revealed that during his rough patch, the coach, captain, and the entire CSK management backed him and made him feel secure.
“If I look back now, yes, I had failures to start off with, but the management, the team, and the coach made me feel good. I would give a lot of credit to the whole CSK team, the captain and coach”
“It is really important to stay positive and believe in yourself because you will have done a lot of hard work throughout and you will have failures in cricket. It will not happen that every day you will score runs. You will have failures. I think you really need to stay positive”
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