Is the current team management, where Gautam Gambhir is the head coach, a victim of perception? Take the case of Ruturaj Gaikwad, an opener, who is batting at No. 4 in the ongoing ODI series against South Africa. The demotion didn’t go down well with a section of the critics who questioned the decision.
Gaikwad was picked for the series as a replacement for Shreyas Iyer, India’s ODI vice-captain and the team’s designated No. 4 in this format. Yashasvi Jaiswal was already part of the set-up as the reserve opener and it was natural that he would pair up with Rohit Sharma at the top. No. 3 is Virat Kohli’s position. There was a vacancy at No. 4 and the team management chose Gaikwad over Tilak Varma based on the former’s current form. Pretty logical. And after scoring his maiden ODI hundred, an excellent 83-ball 105, Gaikwad cleared the ‘No. 4’ air.
“I feel it is a privilege to have that kind of confidence from the (team) management towards an opener who can bat at No. 4 as well,” said the 28-year-old at the post-match press conference. South Africa won the match to square the series.
He gave the low-down on his batting process. “Even when I’m opening, I try to bat till the 40th over and take it from there. So I think somewhat I knew how to play between 11 and 40 overs, how to rotate the strike, what the boundary options were. So I was pretty much confident about how I can go through. It was just a matter of how I can play my first 10-15 balls and after that the process remains the same.”
Gaikwad called this century his best yet across formats, given the challenge of batting at No. 4.
The Maharashtra player is not a case in isolation. Earlier, Sanju Samson, too, had spoken about how the team management’s backing helped him become a confident T20I batter.
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