Ruturaj Gaikwad Scores 105 And Proves A Point!

Ruturaj Gaikwad is a classic case of a budding talent showing skills and nous when given the opportunity. His remarkable century — an 83-ball 105 in the second one-day international against South Africa at Raipur — proved that India’s successful domestic cricketers given a fair run are more likely to succeed. While the ‘cricket diwane’ in India are going nuts over the scintillating performance by Virat Kohli (2/100 s in Ranchi and Raipur) and to an extent Rohit ‘hitman’ Sharma (a half century in Ranchi), the sparkling display by the likes of Gaikwad and his ilk need to be applauded. There are more exciting cricketers like Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma waiting in the wings and ready to fire. Recalled after two years, the gifted right hander from Pune, was utterly gutted when Dewald Brevis went airborne like a gymnast at point and converted a catch to neutralise his well-timed square drive in Ranchi. Five single digit scores — 8,8,5,4 and 8 in five of his previous seven ODIs — conveyed to him the fickle nature of the game. His highest was a 77-ball 71 against Australia in Mohali. After his debut against South Africa in Lucknow in October 2022, Gaikwad has missed 52 matches, but as luck would have it — he needed that in plenty — the brutal first ball he faced from left-arm fast bowler Nandre Burger did not do any damage. Gaikwad got a look look-in again as Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer were indisposed because of injuries and he could be benched once they return, but Gaikwad made a point that talents like him deserve chances to prove and not thrown away like in the instances of Sarfaraz Khan and Abhimanyu Easwaran!