Highlights
- Ruturaj showed great form in IPL 2021
- Gaikwad claims strong for South Africa tour
- Maharashtra captain played an innings of 124 runs against Kerala
Young opener Ruturaj Gaikwad, who played a key role in making Chennai Super Kings champions for the fourth time, has staked a hat-trick of centuries in the Vijay Hazare Trophy for the upcoming tour of South Africa.
Ruturaj, a 24-year-old right-handed batsman, scored 124 runs in 129 balls with the help of 9 fours and 3 sixes while batting against Kerala at the Madhav Rao Scindia Cricket Ground in Rajkot on Saturday. This is the third consecutive century of Ruturaj playing in this domestic ODI tournament for Maharashtra (Maharashtra vs Kerala).
Earlier, he scored an unbeaten 154 off 143 balls against Chhattisgarh to give his team an easy victory. Gaikwad hit 14 fours and five sixes in his innings. On the other hand, against Madhya Pradesh also he played an innings of 136 runs.
Team India will play 3-match ODI series on South Africa tour
The Indian team is going to tour South Africa this month where it has to play a 3-match Test and 3-match ODI series. The Indian team has been selected for the Test series while Team India is yet to be selected for the ODI series. In such a situation, the form that Ruturaj is showing will be difficult for the selectors to ignore.
Ruturaj was the orange cap holder in IPL 2021
Ruturaj made his T20 International debut on the tour of Sri Lanka in July this year. Ruturaj, captaining Maharashtra in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021, along with Rahul Tripathi (99) took the team to 291 for 8 against Kerala.
Apart from both the batsmen, no one could face the Kerala bowlers for very long. Gaikwad was stumped by Sanju Samson off Vishweshwar Suresh. Rahul scored 99 runs in 108 balls with the help of 11 fours. Ruturaj was the highest run-scorer in IPL 2021. He was awarded the Orange Cap.
On the other hand, the path is becoming difficult for veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan, who is preparing to return to Team India. Dhawan is also currently trying to make a comeback in Team India through the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021.
Ignored from T20 World Cup and home T20 series against New Zealand
Dhawan has made a comeback in the Vijay Hazare Trophy after being sidelined from the T20 World Cup and the T20I series against New Zealand. However, in the first 3 matches of the summit in this home ODI trophy, the bat has remained silent so far. He has scored only 26 runs.
In the first match against Jharkhand, Dhawan was dismissed for zero. Even against Hyderabad, the bat of this Delhi batsman could not do wonders and he was dismissed after scoring 12 runs. On Saturday also he returned to the pavilion after scoring 14 runs against Uttar Pradesh.
The last international match was played against Sri Lanka.
Shikhar played his last international match on the Sri Lanka tour in July this year. He captained the T20 and ODI teams in Sri Lanka. At that time India’s main team was playing a 5-match Test series with the hosts in England.
Scored 128 runs in the ODI series in Sri Lanka
Dhawan scored 128 runs in the ODI series in Sri Lanka, including an unbeaten 86. In the three-match T20I series, only 86 runs came off Dhawan’s bat.
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