Ruturaj Gaikwad is the best player to captain CSK right now: Virender Sehwag

Recently, former English captain Michael Vaughan and former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag discussed who the better young skipper from IPL 2024 had been - Shubman Gill of the Gujarat Titans, or Ruturaj Gaikwad of the Chennai Super Kings. The duo was of the opinion that while the GT skipper didn't have anyone to assist him, his CSK counterpart had the vital presence of MS Dhoni by his side.

However, Sehwag's viewpoint on Gaikwad seemed to have evolved after the latter's fine 67* (58) against the Kolkata Knight Riders, taking his side to a comfortable seven-wicket victory with 14 balls to spare. The former cricketer recalled his prediction from 2021, while speaking to Cricbuzz. He shared that he had predicted that Gaikwad would be CSK's skipper long back (in 2021), as a result of him displaying those traits and possession of the requisite abilities. While discussing how a captain should ideally be assessed, he felt that Gaikwad had both of those attributes - being result-oriented and having superior leadership abilities.

Also Read: Daryl Mitchell played the Ambati Rayudu role against KKR: Robin Uthappa

“I had predicted this long back that he would be the captain of CSK because he had shown those signs and had the abilities. You can either look at a captain based on results or whether he has leadership abilities. And he has both," Sehwag expressed while speaking to Cricbuzz.

For the purpose of bolstering his assertion, Sehwag compared Gaikwad with Dhoni's trajectory to becoming one of India's finest skippers. While leading a second-string side in the T20 World Cup 2007, no one expected Dhoni to guide a team filled with inexperienced newbies to the ultimate zenith, post which the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had heightened expectations from him, making him the ODI team's skipper in the same year, before taking over the captaincy in the longest format a year after the triumph in South Africa.

Also Read: 'The success we've had, things we have been doing, don't want to change single bit of it' - Ruturaj Gaikwad on keeping CSK's tradition intact

Sehwag likened the same to Gaikwad, tagging him as the "best player to captain CSK right now", about whom he felt that the results will reflect over a span, but in his nascent career as CSK's skipper, the 27-year-old has shown how composed and collected he is on the field with his decision-making.

"See, nobody expected MS Dhoni to win the T20 World Cup. But after he won, the expectations became bigger, and then they started thinking about making him the ODI captain as well. Same with Gaikwad, results will show with time, but he has definitely shown the signs that he is cool and calm and uses his bowlers well. He is the best player to captain CSK right now,” Sehwag said.