Maharashtra skipper and opening batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad continued with his sensational form with the bat as he registered his third consecutive century in three innings. Gaikwad played an exceptional knock of 124 off 129 against Kerala in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy to take his tournament tally past 414 runs in just three innings.
Riding on the brilliant knock of Gaikwad, Maharashtra was able to post a total of 291 runs after being put in to bat by Kerala skipper Sanju Samson. Gaikwad was well supported by Rahul Tripathi, who missed his century by just one run as the duo together stitched a 195-run partnership for the third wicket.
Ruturaj and Rahul Tripathi helped the team recover the team from two early wickets. During his knock against Kerala today, Gaikwad smashed nine fours and three sixes and took his side to a strong position. This was Gaikwad’s third century in a row. Earlier, Gaikwad has scored 136 (112) against Madhya Pradesh and 154 not out (143) against Chhattisgarh.
With this, Gaikwad has now equaled the tally of Mayank Agarwal in 2017-18 edition and R Samarth in 2020-21 edition, who scored three centuries in a single season. He is now only one century behind to equal Prithvi Shaw and Devdutt Padikkal, who both hit 4 hundred each in the last edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Why we think Ruturaj Gaikwad is the next big thing in Indian cricket:
Gaikwad has been receiving praises from all corners and is being considered as the next big thing in Indian cricket. However, the road to success wasn’t that easy for the opening batter.
After enjoying a breakthrough in the 2020 edition of the IPL, he was struggling to score big in the first half of the IPL 2021. A lot of fingers were pointed at him and there were several instances when he had left his fans disappointed. But Chennai Super Kings and skipper MS Dhoni showed their faith in Gaikwad and backed him, despite all the fingers being pointed towards him.
Later, Gaikwad lived up to the expectations of MS Dhoni and the team. He turned out to be the highest run-getter in 2021 with a tally of 635 runs. He played a crucial role in CSK’s fourth title win.
Gaikwad then showed the cricket fraternity why he was backed so much by the legendary Indian skipper, with his performances for the India A team. The cricketer also has nine hundred and 16 half-centuries, playing for List A cricket at averages a tick over 52 (52.12) and strikes at 98.96. Interestingly, only Virat Kohli has a better List A average than Gaikwad.
In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Gaikwad didn’t play many games, but he left a mark with his performances. He amassed 259 runs off just 5 innings – playing at an average of 51.8 and a strike rate in excess of 149.
Meanwhile, Gaikwad’s stunning performances in the domestic circuit and for CSK resulted in CSK retaining him ahead of next year’s mega auction. It won’t be wrong to say that Gaikwad is actually making a case for himself to enter the white-ball scene for the Indian cricket team. And with the South Africa tour just around the corner, he might even receive a call-up for the ODI series
Also Read: Mayank Agarwal Revealed How Rahul Dravid Helped Him In Regaining His Form
