As India has opening options such Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant for the T20 World Cup, former Indian opener Aakash Chopra reckons Ruturaj Gaikwad missed an opportunity to seal his place in the team as he wasn’t consistent enough in the recently concluded series against South Africa.
Gaikwad scored a fine knock of 57 runs in the third T20I at Visakhapatnam against the Proteas but apart from that, he could not deliver the goods for the national team. The right-hander scored a total of 96 runs in five innings at an average of 19.20 and a strike rate of 131.51.
The right-hander struggled to provide good starts to his team whereas his opening partner Ishan Kishan did a good job.
While picking disappointments for India from the series against South Africa, Aakash Chopra said while talking on his YouTube Channel, “I have kept Ruturaj Gaikwad’s name above everyone else because there is a huge traffic jam at the top, you can call it Chandni Chowk or Crawford Market jam. There is a crowd there, there is no place for openers.”
“A few believe that even Kohli can be made to open. Kohli opens for his franchise, so he can also open here. Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan can open, how many people will open? Everyone wants to open. In one match, we had even gotten Rishabh Pant to open.”
Furthermore, Gaikwad also didn’t have the best of Tata IPL 2022 while playing for Chennai Super Kings. The right-hander scored 368 runs in 14 matches at an average of 26.29 and a strike rate of 126.46.
“If we see from this viewpoint, Ruturaj Gaikwad has gone way back. He played five matches, a lot of people played four only, because the last match was rained off, but Ruturaj had gotten out in that match, so it is five innings for him.”
“In five innings, if you have scored a total of 96 runs, unfortunately, it’s not gonna cut it. I love Ruturaj Gaikwad, he is technically very compact, has a very good playing style but 96 runs in five innings, which includes a good knock of 57. That means the rest of the series was absolutely cold.”
As Gaikwad failed to grab his opportunity against South Africa, the renowned commentator feels either Venkatesh Iyer or Rahul Tripathi could open the innings with Ishan Kishan in the two-match T20I series against Ireland.
