Ruturaj Gaikwad has fallen out of favour with the national selectors lately.
Legendary spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has shared his thoughts on Ruturaj Gaikwad’s ouster from India’s T20I team, despite his impressive record and obvious talent.
According to Ashwin, Gaikwad has fallen out of favour with the national selectors due to Sanju Samson’s emergence and the stiff competition for the top-order spots in the T20I side.
Gaikwad, who was handed CSK’s captaincy after MS Dhoni stepped down ahead of the IPL 2024 season, has represented India in 23 T20Is so far, scoring 633 runs at an average of 39.56 and a strike rate of 143.53 with one hundred and four half-centuries.
However, Gaikwad didn’t feature in India’s T20 World Cup 2024 squad. After Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s retirement, Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal got busy with Test assignments, which led to India picking Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma as T20I openers.
“India’s top order is packed. Up top, we have a lot of contenders. Ruturaj, Yashasvi, Shubman Gill… they are either playing one-day cricket or aren’t in the scheme of things. In his last T20I, Gaikwad scored a 100, took Maxwell to the cleaners. But he hasn’t gotten an opportunity since. It’s because there are so many people competing for two spots," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
“Sanju Samson has taken one out of those two places. He scored two centuries. And came out of the syllabus. A No. 3 batter opened, scored runs and booked his slot. For the other one, pressure was mounting on Abhishek Sharma. He knew that players were gunning for that slot, including Gaikwad. The way he played under pressure. He got a message from the team management that you have the freedom to go and play carefree," he added.
India are currently hosting England in a five-match T20I series. Samson and Abhishek have retained their spots as openers for this assignment.
During the series opener at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday (January 22), Samson made a quickfire 26 while Abhishek returned with a whirlwind 34-ball 79 that propelled India to a seven-wicket victory.
The second T20I of the series is scheduled to be played in Chennai on Saturday (January 25).