Chennai Super Kings (CSK) made the decision to change their opening pair of Devin Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad as they faced Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Devon was not in the XI, and Ruturaj did not open the batting.
Coming as a surprise to all, Rahul Tripathi and Rachin Ravindra were the openers, and Ruturaj walked out at No. 3. The batting coach of CSK, Michael Hussey, explained that they wanted to use Tripathi in the powerplay as Ruturaj has the versatility that makes him ideal to come at the 3rd place instead of an opener.
Ruturaj had batten in the middle order for Maharashtra across formats in the recent domestic season, along with playing at number three and four for India during last year’s Zimbabwe tour.
He captained India C in the 2024-25 Duleep Trophy and the Rest of India in the Irani Cup. He has also captained India ‘A’ side tour in the shadow tour in Australia for the series which consisted of two first-class matches.
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