CHENNAI: When a then young Ruturaj Gaikwad was catching the eye with his franchise side, Chennai Super Kings, Faf du Plessis had likened him to a young Virat Kohli. "Looks (Gaikwad) like a young Kohli, doesn't he," the Du Plessis had remarked after Gaikwad had made an unbeaten 62 for the team during a successful run chase in a game in 2020. "What stands out for me is that he stands up to pressure."
Five years and a month removed from that knock, Gaikwad's making good on his initial promise. A modern batter who has multiple shots for each delivery, the 28-year-old stroked his way to an aesthetically pleasing 83-ball 105 in the second ODI against South Africa at Raipur on Wednesday.
The innings is a confirmation of everything Gaikwad brings to the white-ball set-up. He can clear the ropes, can rotate strike and adept at accessing different areas. But, importantly, he also showed he can up the ante coming in the middle-order, not his usual position. Even as Virat Kohli played at his own pace, the Maharashtrian was keen to keep the momentum established by Rohit Sharma as well as the visiting bowlers, whose radar malfunctioned in the powerplay.
When Gaikwad walked into the middle, India were on 62 after 9.4 but there were over 10 wides in that. Marco Jansen, who has found disconcerting bounce from awkward lengths throughout the tour, welcomed Gaikwad with a brute of a lifter. Luckily for him, it hit his glove before flying over the wicket-keeper. Post that inauspicious start, though, the No. 4 looked at home in his eighth ODI for his country.
When the pair raised the first 50-run stand, Gaikwad had made 37 of those. He was hogging the strike but he was also finding boundaries as well as finding the gaps for singles. It was a feature throughout his innings. He scored 60 in boundaries but there were also 33 singles and six twos.
It's also an innings he needed for the national team because for all their travails in red-ball cricket, they are filled with attractive stroke-makers in white ball. And Gaikwad, who made his ODI debut in October 2022, will know he will not get more opportunities to create a slot for himself.
Assuming Rohit Sharma and Kohli will be around and Shubman Gill will take his rightful place at the top, Gaikwad is already looking at No. 4. But with Shreyas Iyer likely to come in at No. 4 when he's fit, the position Gaikwad is fighting for right now is that of reserve opener or reserve specialist middle-order batter. With India needing at least one left-hander in top five to ensure no negative match-ups as well as finding a place for Hardik Pandya, he knows there's currently automatic slot for him.
Considering those are his working conditions, it can be very hard for a batter to perform. But Gaikwad has shown that he can thrive under pressure. Even if these runs will, at best, guarantee him a position among the subs bench when the entire batting unit is fit, these are runs that still have to be made.
This format is also best suited to to his rhythms and the way he goes about accumulating his runs. Even if there has been a growing clamour to pick him for the Test side — an average of 45.5 after 43 first-class games matches is nothing to sniff at — Gaikwad's list A numbers suggest he can be a special player; average of 56.7 after 90 matches while striking at 100.7.
It suggests somebody who bats at a frenetic pace but the reality is that he's measured in his risk-taking and manages to score a lot of runs without taking chances.
Speaking to the broadcasters in the interval, he said: "obviously a dream to bat with him (Kohli) and, you know, have a wonderful partnership. He helped me a lot throughout... what lengths the bowler might be bowling and how you can adjust your technique and score some runs by taking less dot balls. So definitely very helpful and good learning for me."
Over the course of that 195-run stand, it wasn't hard to see why Du Plessis had held Gaikwad in such high regard all those years ago.
For the time being though, he will have to be patient but he will have to believe that his time will come to influence high stakes games on a regular basis.
Proteas hunt down target
The series will go into the deciding third game after the visitors chased down 359. On a night filled with dew, Aiden Markram (110), Matt Breetzke (68) and Dewald Brevis (54) came up with big contributions to take them over the line with three wickets to spare.