Ruturaj Gaikwad responds to CSK skipper MS Dhoni's 'Spark in youngsters' comment in IPL 2020

The 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) didn’t go as planned for the three-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Even their skipper MS Dhoni, after one of the losses, admitted that things didn’t go their way this season. At the same time, he also pointed out that the youngsters in the team didn’t show any spark for the management to be confident of them.

This statement caused a lot of stir with the experts and former cricketers lashing out at MS Dhoni. Many alleged CSK of not giving a longer rope to the players like N Jagadeesan and Ruturaj Gaikwad. Both the players were dropped after one or two matches. They thought that it was unfair on those players. However, Ruturaj Gaikwad got a chance in the last three games after CSK was officially ruled out of the tournament and he grabbed the chance with both hands.

MS Dhoni always likes my batting, says Ruturaj Gaikwad

The talented batsman smashed three back-to-back half-centuries and won Man of the Match award in all those matches helping CSK to cross the line. A lot of them including MS Dhoni praised him as well while many thought Gaikwad responded strongly to his skipper’s ‘spark’ comment. However, Gaikwad has cleared that Dhoni’s statement were misunderstood.

Moreover, he also cleared that the veteran keeper-batsman always gives him advice in the nets and also likes his batting a lot. Rather Ruturaj Gaikwad himself didn’t give much importance to the brouhaha created outside over the statement. “I didn’t read much into what MS had said and I never felt he intended that way. He must have thought of something and said, but people took it the other way. What he said didn’t matter to me or didn’t even get to my head.

“At nets, he would advise me regarding my batting and on top of that, he has always liked my batting,” he said while speaking to The Telegraph India. Ruturaj also said that MS Dhoni used to tell him to focus on process while in the nets and more so, supported him during the tough time when he contracted COVID-19 just before the IPL.

“At nets, MS used to tell me, ‘just make sure your process is right and don’t worry about the results.’ I just followed that,” the 23-year-old added.