Chennai Super Kings (CSK) opener Ruturaj Gaikwad on Tuesday (September 27) recalled skipper MS Dhoni’s advise to be in the moment and enjoy the game when he was making his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut.

Gaikwad was roped in by CSK at the IPL 2019 auction for INR 20 lakh. While the right-hander didn’t get an opportunity in 2019, he scored 204 runs in 6 matches in the 2022 season.

However, Gaikwad’s breakthrough year came in 2021 when he finished as the highest run-getter (635 runs in 16 matches) in CSK’s triumphant campaign. As a result, he was retained by the franchise ahead of the 2022 edition of IPL for INR 6 crore.

“When I made my debut, he (M.S Dhoni) was very clear. He said to enjoy the game. Representing this franchise is a huge achievement, a lot of great players have been part of this dressing room, and a lot of greats have been involved with this franchise. So, I think he just said that ‘you just need to be in that moment and enjoy’ it," said Gaikwad during his interaction with students at the Super Kings Academy.

In his debut season for CSK, Ruturaj Gaikwad also endured some failures but he always had the backing of captain Dhoni.

“I really need to be thankful and grateful that I was in a really good team which has a very good environment. Also, having M.S Dhoni around me helped a lot as well. In that process, I never felt that I was having a setback.

“If I look back now, yes, I had failures to start off with, but the management, the team and the coach made me feel (good). I would give a lot of credit to the whole CSK team, the captain and coach," he said.

According to Gaikwad, every cricketer sees failures in their careers but it’s important to stay positive.

“It is really important to stay positive and believe in yourself because you will have done a lot of hard work throughout and you will have failures in cricket. It will not happen that every day you will score runs. You will have failures. I think you really need to stay positive," he said.

(With IANS inputs)