CHENNAI: Ruturaj Gaikwad seems a lot relaxed as he sits for the media interaction on Monday night — his first as the captain of Chennai Super Kings. After all, he just hit the winning runs, and his first fifty as skipper, to take the home team across the line against Kolkata Knight Riders at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
It’s been five games as CSK captain for Gaikwad and he has seen his share of ups and downs. The high of two home victories and then the tough losses on road before getting back to their fortress for the third victory. In many ways, he has settled in on the role of his predecessor — MS Dhoni — and it shows. The first few questions come in about the contest against KKR as Gaikwad explained the nature of the surface, their plans against Rinku Singh and Andre Russell and the previous losses.
Then came the questions on his new role as Chennai skipper, what kind of captain he wants to be. He pauses for half a moment, turns to his right and then starts with a shy smile that he is trying hard to hide: “Captaincy wise, I feel I don't want to be a specific kind of character. Just like to flow things as they are flowing. Keep the culture of CSK basically going. I feel the success we had, things we had been doing...I don’t want to change a single bit of it. I just want to come there, take my own decisions and give as much freedom as possible, because that is what has been happening since I started playing for CSK. So nothing really changes and I’m enjoying a lot.”
It’s a very CSK-ish answer and you are not surprised that Gaikwad is continuing the same. For anyone to come in and take over the role of captain from someone like Dhoni, the last thing you would expect them to say is how they want to do things differently. And more importantly, Gaikwad isn’t a new player coming in and taking charge of the team and franchise. In many ways, he was the chosen one. He was being groomed to take the team forward whenever Dhoni decides so.
Although the timing of the change in captaincy might have come to a surprise to many, Gaikwad had known it for a couple of years that there is a possibility that this might happen. “I remember in 2022 was when he told me that, ‘you know, probably not next year but after that you might get a chance to lead, so be ready for it’. So obviously after that, I was always preparing for it. It (the captaincy) didn’t come as news to me or was I bit surprised or shocked. I feel, obviously, for every one outside, it would feel like those are big shoes to fill. But I would like to be myself and continue the culture, which has been going,” he says.
Even the passing of baton seem to have happened in a very matter-of-fact way with Dhoni casually having a “chilled conversation” with Gaikwad during a training session in March, letting him know that he would leading the side this season. But in the lead up to that conversation, a lot of work has gone into preparing and understanding Gaikwad as a captain and leader, especially from head coach Stephen Fleming. Throughout the 2023 season, the Fleming and Gaikwad would have one-on-one conversations after every match on the things the latter would have done differently, the reasons for it and how he wants to implement things. “I know how to control the game, I know how the game progresses.. which change what to do when as I was doing for the state (Maharashtra) team as well.
Even last year, Fleming and I always used to discuss about the captain's thing. After every game we spoke about how I felt, what bowling change I felt we needed to do and what was the thinking behind it. So, yeah, every game we had had one-on-one conversations. That was just really building it up for me.”
As the conversation goes on, Gaikwad is more at ease, explaining his perspective on decision-making, his role as a batter at the top, but what strikes the most is that he knows that he is not going to make everyone happy, especially the fans, every single game. He understands the disappointment and hurt when team losses, but stresses they are inevitable in a tournament like the IPL. “Obviously you have to approach every game with same intensity. Sometimes opposition plays really good cricket. Sometimes toss matters. Sometimes, you know, we don't capitalize on certain things so there are few things that you have to factor in,” he says.
It is still early days and Gaikwad is still going evolve and grow into the role. However, it is not hard to see why Dhoni and CSK chose Gaikwad as the anointed one. For it’s not just that he is one of their own, but also that he is at home leading one of the most successful franchises in the league.