Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra criticised Ruturaj Gaikwad after Chennai Super Kings suffered a five-wicket loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Monday.
Gaikwad scored a mundane knock of 15 runs off 21 balls as he failed to change gears at the top of the order. The CSK captain also didn’t get enough strike as he was dismissed in the 12th over.
Gaikwad has scored his runs at a strike rate of 120.67 in the ongoing season, which hasn’t been good enough as teams have consistently posted more than 200 runs on the board.
Chopra said Gaikwad wasn’t even attempting to hit a four or a six in his ordinary knock. The CSK skipper was dismissed on a bouncer when he could manage a bottom edge against his opposite number, Pat Cummins.
“What about Ruturaj Gaikwad and this knock? You made 15 runs off 21 balls. I was seeing the scorecard because the pitch is slow at times, and everyone plays slowly if that’s the case. Sanju Samson had a strike rate of 207. Urvil Patel had a strike rate of 162. Kartik Sharma had a strike rate of 168. Dewald Brevis had a strike rate of 162,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“Shivam Dube was struggling. They were bowling very well in the end, and there was no field restriction. So he had a strike rate of 113. Prashant Veer scored 11 runs off nine balls. He had a strike rate of 122. 15 runs off 21 balls is a strike rate of 71. Not a single boundary, and the bigger thing than that was that he wasn’t even attempting to hit a four or a six, as if it didn’t matter,” he added.
The renowned commentator questioned if the team management is asking Gaikwad to play in this fashion in the ongoing season.
“Is the team management asking him to play this way, that he should be the pivot, and the team should revolve around him? Is it the team’s decision? If it is, you are the captain, refuse to play like that,” he said.
The former KKR batter also wondered if the onus of captaincy is weighing Gaikwad down with the bat.
“Secondly, is captaincy weighing him down because this has been happening for many games? When he has scored runs, he has not scored runs at a fair clip. You are asking Kartik Sharma to hit. You are saying the same thing to Urvil Patel and Sanju Samson,” Chopra observed.
CSK will next take on Gujarat Titans at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Thursday.
