Former Team India opener Akash Chopra said that Rituraj Gaikwad did not perform very well in the five-match T20 series against South Africa. Gaikwad scored a 35-ball 57 in the third T20 International in Visakhapatnam, but did poorly in the rest of the matches. In five matches, the right-handed batsman scored 96 runs at an average of 19.20 and a strike rate of 131.50.
Talking about the players who missed out on the opportunity in the series against South Africa, Chopra said that in T20 cricket, Team India has a lot of opening options, so Gaikwad missed the golden opportunity. He believed that the Chennai Super Kings opener needed to perform well in order to remain on the radar of the selectors.
Chopra said on his YouTube channel, “I have named Rituraj Gaikwad at the top because there is a traffic jam in the top order, you can call it Chandni Chowk or Crawford Market jam. There is a crowd, there is no space for the opener batsmen. Seeing from this point of view, Rituraj Gaikwad has gone a long way. They played five matches, many players played only four because the last match was washed out by rain, but Rituraj was out in that match.
Chopra further said, “If you have scored a total of 96 runs in five innings, then it is not going to help. I like Rituraj Gaikwad. He is technically very compact. His style of play is very good, but in five innings he has scored only 96 runs, including a good 57. This means that the rest of the series was completely cold.
Gaikwad has not done well after making his T20I debut for India on the tour of Sri Lanka last year. Leaving the innings in Vizag, Gaikwad has scored 78 runs in seven matches at an average of 11.14. Gaikwad won the 2021 Indian Premier League Orange Cap while playing for Chennai Super Kings, after which the four-time champions were retained for IPL 2022.