Did MS Dhoni interfere too much in Ruturaj Gaikwad's captaincy? Sunil Gavaskar's colossal verdict

Former India batsman and captain Sunil Gavaskar was all praise for Chennai Super Kings’ new captain Ruturaj Gaikwad for his effective bowling changes in the IPL 2024 opener against RCB. It was the opening batsman’s first match leading the 5-time champions and the Yellow Army’s title defense could not have started any well. They defeated the Faf du Plessis-led RCB by 6 wickets in front of home support at the MA Chidambaram stadium last night.

While he could not do anything special with the bat during the run-chase, Ruturaj Gaikwad did well to manage his team in the 1st innings and was also very smart with his bowling changes. His tactics were spot-on and also helped Chennai claim breakthroughs cheaply after a strong start from RCB who had won the toss and elected to bat first.

Sunil Gavaskar hails Ruturaj Gaikwad for his usage of Mustafizur Rahman and Tushar Deshpande

As soon as RCB had walked out to bat, questions were being raised over the form of RCB skipper Faf du Plessis. However, the South African after assessing the pitch, started with his boundary-scoring spree from the 2nd over of the powerplay. He was solely responsible for causing most of the damage to Deepak Chahar and Tushar Deshpande who were bowling some rubbish short-pitched and outside off-stump deliveries which were an invitation for du Plessis.

After seeing his pacers being taken on, Ruturaj Gaikwad introduced Maheesh Theekshana before handing the ball to Bangladesh’s Mustafizur Rahman. The left-arm seamer with his deceiving pace variations, quickly turned the table and led to the removal of du Plessis in 4th over’s 3rd ball before claiming number 3 batter Rajat Patidar in the last ball for a 3-ball duck.

Despite proving expensive in his first two overs, Ruturaj Gaikwad counted on Deepak Chahar to bowl the last over of powerplay and the latter did not let his new captain. The dangerous Glenn Maxwell was sent back for a golden duck as the ball just took Maxwell’s edge and went to MS Dhoni’s gloves.

Upon seeing that, Sunil Gavaskar claimed that Gaikwad started his captaincy tenure pretty well and the way a debutant captain should. Sunny G hailed the right-hand batsman for his mindful bowling change, calling it “terrific”.

“Your debut as a captain becomes very important. You want to begin your captaincy career well with a win and that’s exactly what happened. What was impressive was his bowling changes. Because when you saw the way he kept on changing Mustafizur; the way he used Mustafizur was absolutely terrific.” – Gavaskar told Star Sports.

Gavaskar highlights Dhoni’s role in Ruturaj Gaikwad’s captaincy tenure starting off well

When Maxwell departed, RCB were at 42 but the visitors after reaching the 70s, lost Virat Kohli and Cameron Green in the same over (11th) bowler by the eventual MOTM Mustafizur Rahman. From 78/5, Bengaluru went on to post 173 on the board through Anuj Rawat’s 48 at a 192 strike rate and Dinesh Karthik’s 26-ball 38.

In response, Ruturaj Gaikwad could only score run a ball 15 while debutant Rachin Ravindra scored 37 off 15, Rahane and Daryl Mitchell contributed 22 and 27. In the end, it was two lefties – Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja who guided CSK to a victory.

After the match, Sunil Gavaskar, after hailing Ruturaj’s bowling changes, highlighted the effect MS Dhoni might have had in CSK’s win.

“I think the captaincy was most impressive. And we see over here, he has, of course, MS Dhoni around him, to guide him, tell him, and give him the encouragement. Sometimes, that little nod from somebody as experienced and as accomplished as MSD makes a big difference.” – Gavaskar concluded.