Ruturaj Gaikwad on Thursday said he utilised a nearly five-month injury-enforced break to work on his red-ball game, but the India batter believes he has a long way to go in the traditional format despite
an excellent start to the season.
Gaikwad suffered an elbow injury in early April while playing against Rajasthan Royals, which curtailed his IPL 2025 stint as Chennai Super Kings skipper and caused him to miss the India A squad against England Lions ahead of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
He also withdrew from a County deal with Yorkshire for personal reasons but found a silver lining in these setbacks.
“I had good time to prepare, especially after not being part of the India A series. And then after that coming back, I decided to work on my red ball game, give it some amount of time and obviously still working on it, still long way to go,” said Gaikwad after scoring 184 for West Zone on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy semifinal against Central Zone.
The effort seems to have paid off, as Gaikwad scored his second successive hundred after hitting a century against Himachal Pradesh in the Buchi Babu invitational tournament in Chennai.
Was it easy for him to switch back after a long injury break?
“Not really. Actually, it was just about following the process. The red ball game actually needs a lot of patience, a lot of process to be followed and it was just about getting into that rhythm. And you know, I did it for almost one, one and a half months and obviously Buchi Babu as well and then it happened here as well,” he added.
Gaikwad said the absence from cricket also helped him mentally and allowed him to spend quality time with his family.
“I mean, nobody would want to have a family time being injured. It was a very fluke injury and nothing anyone can do about it. So, I just enjoyed my time at home and then obviously trying to get into the rhythm, get into the game routines, you know, do the small things and really loved the process throughout,” he noted.
Why It Is Not Ruturaj Gaikwad 2.0?
On the field, the 28-year-old faced another challenge as he began batting at No. 4 across formats for Maharashtra and in many games for Chennai Super Kings.
“I won’t say it is 2.0 because, you know, I think in white ball, I always opened but in red ball, there was only one spot available in Maharashtra when I joined the team. So, I think that was the only spot available. Whenever, you know, there were two proper openers playing, I always used to play at three. So, definitely, there were no real spots for me but now obviously, I feel I am really comfortable there,” he added.
This comfort was evident when he rescued West Zone from a precarious 10 for two with a substantial hundred.
“I thought it was a good challenge to be part of because obviously, three really good (Central Zone) fast bowlers, you know, with great skill set and to be able to face them, to be able to score runs against them would be a great challenge. That is what I thought and obviously, I stick to it and am really happy that it came off,” he said.
Gaikwad praised Tanush Kotian, with whom he made a 148-run partnership for the sixth wicket, putting West Zone in a strong position.
“He always bats really well. He has the knack of scoring runs. He has proper Mumbai brain, really street smart and knows when to score runs, knows when to soak up the pressure. So, you know, he is always done in front of me and even today, he batted really well,” he noted.
Recently, legendary MS Dhoni said Gaikwad would strengthen CSK batting in IPL 2026, and the Maharashtrian accepted the compliment warmly.
“From him, the support was always there. There was nothing to be shy about and obviously, you know, me missing that tournament and then later on having some replacements (Ayush Mhatre, Shaikh Rasheed etc). It really strengthened the squad (in IPL 2025) and then obviously, me joining back again would really strengthen it again. So, I feel that is what he said,” said Gaikwad.
(With inputs from PTI)
