Gaikwad plays for Chennai Super Kings franchise which is led by MS Dhoni.
Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni was left impressed with Pune-born Ruturaj Gaikwad's cricketing acumen. The 22-year-old may not have gotten an opportunity to play for CSK in his debut season, but it was still a memorable one for him.
In an interaction with Cricinfo, Ruturaj talked about his interaction with Dhoni. It was the game between CSK and Kolkata Knight Riders at Chepauk when Andre Russell was shouldering visitor's innings alone. He scored a half-century and hit five fours and three sixes in his picked area between long-off and deep square-leg.
"Mahi bhai, Andre Russell scoop aur paddle nahi karta. Short fine leg hataake deep square laga sakte the," Gaikwad had told Dhoni after the innings.
Dhoni was happy with youngster's involvement in the game. "Sharp cricket mind," Dhoni told him. The CSK captain further revealed the plan and said, "Thodha chhota karne ka plan tha, aur short fine top-edge ke liye ruka tha. Aise hi involved rehna."
Dhoni first spotted Ruturaj in a Ranji Trophy match against Jharkhand. In that match, the Maharashtra batsman was hit by a bouncer and got his finger fractured. He still continued to bat after skipper Kedar Jadhav told him to, despite the unbearable pain.
Dhoni had come to meet Ruturaj at the lunch break. He signed his plaster and wrote, "get well soon". "Mahi bhai was Jharkhand's mentor. I wanted to impress him, but suddenly got hit by a bouncer from Varun Aaron and fractured my finger," Gaikwad remembers. "I wanted to come off, but Kedar Jadhav told me to carry on. After a point, I just couldn't tolerate the pain, so tried to hit out and was caught. At the lunch break, Mahi bhai came over to talk to me and signed my bat and wrote 'get well soon' on my plaster."
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Gaikwad added that Dhoni remembered everything when he asked him about the incident in CSK camp. "In fact, I asked Mahi bhai this when I joined the CSK camp. 'Yaad hai aapko?' He said: 'bilkul, sirf woh sign nahi, but tumhara shot [to get out] bhi. You're talented, keep scoring runs in domestic cricket.'
The youngster was picked by CSK at his base price of INR 20 lakh in the IPL auction last year. He was not expecting himself to be picked and hence Ruturaj decided to turn on his PlayStation. "After the first round for uncapped players, I switched off the TV and turned on my Playstation," he says. "My number was 80-odd, and suddenly from 75 it jumped to 110. So I thought my chance was gone.
"After some time, I started getting messages. That's how I found out about my selection. My parents were out of town and returned later that night. It was only when a friend came home with a cake that they actually believed I had been picked."
(WIth Cricinfo Inputs)