Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis join Team Rario

The 2021 edition of the Indian T20 League was special for Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad. The camaraderie between the duo not only on the field but off it as well was one of the talking points during the season. More often than not, they provided Chennai with brilliant starts eventually helping them to win matches.

Both of them were the top two run-getters of the 2021 season with Ruturaj trumping his opening partner by just two runs. They together smashed 1268 runs for Chennai playing a crucial role in the team winning the coveted title for the 4th time in history. The bond between them was to see for everyone and like Faf said in a recent interview, he was like a big brother to Ruturaj.

“It was a special relationship with Ruturaj Gaikwad. I was like a big brother to him. He’s super talented and got a bright future ahead, I am gonna miss opening the batting with him.”

However, it wasn’t just the number of runs that the Faf-Rutu duo scored throughout the season. Both the players complemented each other really well. Generally, the teams prefer opening with a left-right combination to trouble the bowlers and one of the batters is a swashbuckler with the other being an anchor.

In Chennai’s case, both their opening batters were right-handers and none of them were outright hitters. Well, that didn’t deter them from changing their way of batting as they proved that slogging is not the only way to score quick runs. Both Faf and Ruturaj are anchoring kind of batters but they cleverly played out situations pacing their innings well on most occasions.

Throwing light on the understanding between them, Ruturaj, in an interview after one of the games last season, had stated the way they complement each other and how Du Plessis’ skills help him to bat in his own way.

“With Faf, it is pretty much easy. He has an innovation skill so he takes on the bowlers and it makes my job a little bit easier. Against Kolkata, it was a matter of taking a bit of time for me. We were playing on a small ground, we had to keep going. One over I used to take chances, the next over Faf used to take. It was just having each other’s knowledge and knowing each other very well.”

The two batters complemented each other the same way for the whole season. While Faf du Plessis was brilliant against pacers with 486 runs off their bowling at a strike rate of 154 last season, Ruturaj plundered 273 runs against the spinners off 177 balls. Moreover, the latter’s strike rate against slow left-arm spinners was a whopping 190.

However, it is very much unfortunate that the Faf-Rutu partnership will not be seen playing together in the upcoming season. Faf du Plessis will take over the reins of the Bangalore side while Ruturaj, having been retained by Chennai, will be opening with a new partner.

Their partnership will be badly missed in the yellow jersey. But Team Rario gives you an opportunity to see the duo together yet again!