Ruturaj Gaikwad: The uncapped batsman would be hoping for an opportunity to come his way on his maiden tour with the national team.
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Maharashtra and Chennai Super Kings batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad will be competing with the likes of captain Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Suryakumar Yadav and Nitish Rana for a top-order spot during the ongoing tour of Sri Lanka.
On his maiden tour with the national squad, 24-year old Gaikwad is among the six uncapped players who have been selected in the absence of numerous first-choice players.
Gaikwad, who has been a consistent run-scorer for Maharashtra and India A, has scored 2,681 runs at an average and strike rate of 47.87 and 97.59 respectively in his four-year long List A career. In 58 innings, the right-hand batsman has scored seven centuries and 16 half-centuries.
In 13 innings across two seasons for Super Kings in the Indian Premier League, Gaikwad’s 400 runs have come at an average and strike rate of 36.36 and 124.61 with the help of five half-centuries.
Overall, Gaikwad’s 1,337 T20 runs have come at 32.60 and 130.43. Primarily a top-order batsman, it will be interesting to see if Gaikwad gets to play a part in the upcoming six white-ball matches.
Rahul Dravid, former India captain and head coach for Sri Lanka tour, had most recently opened up on some uncapped players finding it difficult to make an international debut on this tour. Laying emphasis on India wanting to win series in both the formats, Dravid had talked about rookie players looking to learn from the experience of traveling with the national team.
Ruturaj Gaikwad bats in India’s intra-squad practice match
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