Ruturaj Gaikwad’s new dawn is here (to stay)

“I’ve always enjoyed captaincy.”

When Ruturaj Gaikwad walked out for the toss in the IPL 2024 opener against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), you could see that he was ready. You could see it on his face that he wanted to own the occasion. 

He walked out with that intention, and with every word, it was evident that there wasn’t a lot of pressure. Until then, he had captained Maharashtra and India at the Asian Games, but none of that was as high pressure as filling the shoes that Dhoni left behind.

RCB were 123/5 at the end of 17 overs. Chennai had them on the mat but then Gaikwad handed the ball to Tushar Deshpande, an over that ended up going for 25 runs. In hindsight, that over didn’t really cost the five-time IPL champions a lot. But in the larger scheme of things, it made Gaikwad aware of a minor fix in his captaincy. 

“Two-three things to work on,” Gaikwad added. 

On Tuesday (March 26), Chennai lost the toss and were put to bat first. It wasn’t an ideal case scenario for the franchise, but they have always relied heavily on scoreboard pressure to prove a point. At 184/3, they already had the upper hand in the clash; the first masterclass came from Gaikwad. 

There was Ravindra Jadeja, and even a 42-year-old MS Dhoni was waiting in the shed. Ideally, a captain would have sent in Jadeja with a wealth of experience. But then entered Sameer Rizvi. A 20-year-old youngster from Uttar Pradesh who has never faced the quality of Rashid before. 

One delivery later, the world was talking about Rizvi’s class. Gaikwad’s move to promote Rizvi over the veteran was well-validated. It showed the world that the 27-year-old displayed street smarts in promoting the right-hander, with the 20-year-old scoring 14 (6) with two sixes against the world’s best spinner. 

It takes guts for someone to make such a big decision. But to do it so coolly is a trait that made Dhoni one of the greatest captains that the sport has ever seen. He did one better, with just three deliveries left in the innings. Gaikwad didn’t take the emotional decision of sending Dhoni to the middle. Instead, he sent Ravindra Jadeja into bat. 

In the last two deliveries that Jadeja batted against Mohit in the final last year, the left-hander smacked a six and then a four. Jadeja hit a two and a four in his first two deliveries here. It was so easy to make an emotional decision, yet Gaikwad resisted.

But the real magic was when Chennai were bowling. 

Deepak Chahar bowling three overs is a sight we have become accustomed to over the last few years. Still, how he maximised his experience with a short-ball ploy against Wriddhiman Saha was commendable. It showed how much Gaikwad, as a captain, has to offer for the franchise. 

He still has Dhoni from behind the stumps to offer input, but the decision-making has come purely from him. In this case, his decision was intertwined with the intel from the 42-year-old behind the sticks. 

The more the game progressed, the more Gaikwad’s captaincy turned out to be mesmirizing, starting with the eighth over. No one saw this move coming. No one would have dared such a move at that crucial juncture in the contest as well, but Gaikwad threw the ball to Daryl Mitchell. 

Mitchell had last bowled in August 2023, seven months before. But in his first over, the all-rounder got the big breakthrough of Vijay Shankar, an over that sharply tilted the contest in favour of the hosts, with the Kiwi all-rounder only conceding five runs in his first over. 

In the larger context, these were small decisions but vital. 

At 93/3, Gujarat had made a swift return in the clash, with the partnership between David Miller and Sai Sudharsan, but that’s when Gaikwad made another decision that changed the course of the contest. He re-introduced Deshpande, who removed Miller in the very same over. 

It brought a right-hander into the crease and allowed Chennai to finally use Jadeja's left-arm spin, which was caged because of the two left-handers out in the middle. Gaikwad was uber-alert, taking proactive measures to avoid a last-minute falter like in the clash against RCB. 

The biggest of his mind-bending decisions was not to play Maheesh Theekshana. You could walk the streets of Chennai, and no one in their right mind would advise you to drop Theekshana out of the eleven. Moreso in Chennai, where conditions have always favoured the spinners. 

Theekshana has been one of the first names on this Chennai team sheet, but it changed under Gaikwad’s captaincy. Looking at the conditions, where there wasn’t too much turn, and considering that a lot of Mustafizur Rahman’s cutters were going to make it tough for the Titans, Chennai brought in Matheesha Pathirana. 

Pathirana made a huge difference in the outcome of the clash. He was throwing em’ down rapidly and, at one point, nearly blew the lid. It gave Chennai the extra option of having a death-over bowler and gave Gaikwad a real wicket-taking option, something they desperately needed on this pitch. 

He stuck with his guns and Pathirana responded with the big wicket of Sai Sudharsan. In short sight, it is a huge win for the Super Kings but in the larger scheme of things, this was tactical brilliance from the franchise, who now have multiple combinations to tackle different conditions. 

“Definitely today's game was perfect - batting, bowling and fielding, and against a team like Gujarat we needed to come up with a performance like this,” Gaikwad said in the post-match presentation. 

What he didn’t say was that his captaincy was near perfect, too. As cliched as it sounds, in 1975, someone with the surname Gaekwad turned the landscape of movies in Tamil Nadu. 

49 years later, someone with the same surname is taking big, bold steps of upscaling the cricket fandom with his version of the Super Kings.

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