The young opener and India batter from Maharashtra, Ruturaj Gaikwad, is celebrating his 27th birthday today. He is one of the most talented batters around in Indian cricket and in the last few years, he has translated that talent into results. He has been dominating domestic cricket in the recent past and not just in the domestic circuit but he has been a force to reckon with in IPL as well.
Gaikwad made his domestic debut in the 2016-17 season when he announced his entry in all three formats of the game. Maharashtra included him in the squad for the 2016-17 season of the Ranji Trophy. He played his maiden first-class match against Jharkhand at Delhi in October 2016. In the next few months, he went on to make his debut in List A and T20 cricket as well.
Fame in IPL
His consistent performances in domestic cricket, especially in the Syed Mushtaq Ali, gave him a chance to find his name in the Chennai Super Kings camp. The Punekar made his IPL debut in 2020, in that season he played only 6 matches but gave a glimpse of what he is capable of.
His breakthrough season was the next one, in 2021, when he smashed 635 runs in a season and never looked back from there. After the 2021 IPL season, Ruturaj Gaikwad has gone from strength to strength with an evident growth in his stature.
India Debut
Gaikwad got the reward for his outstanding batting performance in the 2021 IPL season as he got his maiden India call-up just a month later. The opener played his first T20I against Sri Lanka in Colombo in July 2021. The youngster had to wait for his ODI debut but he finally made his 50-over debut a year later in 2022 when he played his first One-Day international match against South Africa.
Ruturaj Gaikwad has limitless potential and Indian cricket needs the dynamic opener to keep delivering impressive batting performances for he can be the face of the Indian batting unit in the years to come.