Ruturaj Gaikwad on Thursday said he exploited a near five-month long injury-enforced lay off, working on his red-ball game but the India batter felt that he has long distance to traverse in the traditional format despite making an excellent start to the season.
Gaikwad suffered an elbow injury in early April while playing against Rajasthan Royals that curtailed his IPL 2025 stint as Chennai Super Kings skipper, and then missed being part of the India A squad against the England Lions ahead of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
He also pulled out of a County deal with Yorkshire, citing personal reasons, but Gaikwad saw a sliver of positivity in all these setbacks.
“I had good time to prepare, especially after not being part of the India A series. And then after that coming back, I decided to work on my red ball game, give it some amount of time and obviously still working on it, still long way to go,” said Gaikwad after making a 184 for West Zone on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy semifinal against Central Zone here.
But whatever work he has put in his game, it seemed to have paid off as Gaikwad has scored his second successive hundred after striking a century against Himachal Pradesh in the Buchi Babu invitational tournament in Chennai.
But was it easy for him to switch on after a long injury-enforced break? “Not really. Actually, it was just about following the process. The red ball game actually needs a lot of patience, a lot of process to be followed and it was just about getting into that rhythm.
“And you know, I did it for almost one, one and a half months and obviously Buchi Babu as well and then it happened here as well,” he added.
Story continues below this ad
Gaikwad said the absence from cricket also helped him calm down mentally and spent some quality time with his family.
“I mean, nobody would want to have a family time being injured. It was a very fluke injury and nothing anyone can do about it.
“So, I just enjoyed my time at home and then obviously trying to get into the rhythm, get into the game routines, you know, do the small things and really loved the process throughout,” he noted.
On the field, the 28-year-old had another challenge to hurdle over as he started batting at No. 4 across the formats for his state Maharashtra and in many games for the Chennai Super Kings.
Story continues below this ad
“I won’t say it is 2.0 because, you know, I think in white ball, I always opened but in red ball, there was only one spot available in Maharashtra when I joined the team.
“So, I think that was the only spot available. Whenever, you know, there were two proper openers playing, I always used to play at three. So, definitely, there were no real spots for me but now obviously, I feel I am really comfortable there,” he added.
That comfortable factor was very visible on this day, when he battled it out to rescue West Zone from a fragile 10 for two with a daddy hundred.
“I thought it was a good challenge to be part of because obviously, three really good (Central Zone)
fast bowlers, you know, with great skill set and to be able to face them, to be able to score runs against them would be a great challenge. That is what I thought and obviously, I stick to it and am really happy that it came off,” he said.
Story continues below this ad
Gaikwad also had a word of praise for Tanush Kotian, with whom he made 148 runs for the sixth wicket to put West Zone in a commanding position.
“He always bats really well. He has the knack of scoring runs. He has proper Mumbai brain, really street smart and knows when to score runs, knows when to soak up the pressure. So, you know, he is always done in front of me and even today, he batted really well,” he noted.
Recently, legendary MS Dhoni said Gaikwad will be back to strengthen CSK batting in IPL 2026, and the Maharashtrian accepted the compliment with glee.
“From him, the support was always there. There was nothing to be shy about and obviously, you know, me missing that tournament and then later on having some replacements (Ayush Mhatre, Shaikh Rasheed etc).
Story continues below this ad
“It really strengthened the squad (in IPL 2025) and then obviously, me joining back again would really strengthen it again. So, I feel that is what he said,” said Gaikwad.
