Maharashtra may have not advanced to the quarter-finals of the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy, but their captain Ruturaj Gaikwad signed off on a high with yet another List A hundred. Facing Goa, Gaikwad scored 134 as Maharashtra secured a close five-run win over Goa in Jaipur.
During the course of his century, Gaikwad completed 5000 runs in his List A career and improved his average to an excellent 58.83, which is now the highest in the format’s history among batters who played at least 50 matches.
He has thus surpassed Australia legend Michael Bevan’s all-time record of 57.86 he set after scoring a whopping 15103 runs from 427 matches (385 innings).
Top-10 Batters With Highest List A Average (Minimum 50 innings)
- Ruturaj Gaikwad – 58.83 (5060 runs from 95 innings)
- Michael Bevan – 57.86 (15103 runs from 385 innings)
- Sam Hain – 57.76 (3004 runs from 62 innings)
- Virat Kohli – 57.67 (16207 runs from 331 innings)
- Cheteshwar Pujara – 57.01 (5759 runs from 127 innings)
- Prithvi Shaw – 53.61 (3592 runs from 71 innings)
- Babar Azam – 53.59 (9647 runs from 204 innings)
- Khurram Manzoor – 53.52 (7922 runs from 165 innings)
- AB de Villiers – 53.47 (11123 runs from 252 innings)
- Rinku Singh – 53.44 (2405 runs from 63 innings)
Gaikwad’s ODI Snub
The 28-year-old would
have been disappointed when India’s ODI squad for the upcoming three-match series against New Zealand was announced. Despite hitting a century in his last ODI for India, the middle-order batter was dropped from the squad.
Following Gaikwad’s exclusion, former India batter Robin Uthappa said that for cricketers who don’t belong to “three big states”, it’s a constant fight to secure their spots in the Indian team.
“You have to keep fighting, especially if you don’t come from one of the three big states in India – Mumbai, Delhi or Punjab. If you’re not from one of those states, you have to keep pushing yourself,” Uthappa said on his YouTube channel.
Uthappa said Gaikwad will have to remain positive and show immense resilience.
“One of the challenges with Indian cricket is that you’re constantly operating in survival mode. To switch from that mindset takes an immense amount of resilience, self-talk and positive reinforcement. You have to be someone who looks for silver linings,” he said.
