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Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain Ruturaj Gaikwad has opened up on his lack of runs in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. CSK have done fairly well after a poor start to their campaign with three wins from seven games. Amid a mixed bag of a first half of IPL 2026, Gaikwad has copped criticism as he is yet to cross the 30-run mark in an innings. At the coin toss for the Gujarat Titans (GT) clash, Gaikwad said it is very rare for him to not being able to convert starts but he is happy as long as others are doing the job for the team.
“I've been getting starts and not able to convert it. It's very rare, to be honest, but it doesn't quite happen that often. But as I said, as long as I'm getting starts and as long as someone else is doing the job and we are getting over the line, it's fine. But whenever I feel, I'm there, I'm set, and I feel that today's my day, and I'll have to make sure I'll make it count, and I'm confident with that,” Gaikwad said at the coin toss.
The CSK captain has managed to score 104 runs from seven innings at an average of 14.85 and strike rate of 119.54. Among captains, only Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) Riyan Parag is having a worse run with 88 runs from eight innings.
Meanwhile, 44-year-old MS Dhoni missed his eight consecutive game this season. Gaikwad announced one change, bringing in Urvil Patel.
“It's a bit on the drier side and more often than not, it will remain the same, so we're batting first really well and wouldn't mind putting on the score again and defend it. The confidence is high looking at the margin of the runs that we won the last game. But again, this game starts fresh, starts from zero. We have to start assessing how the pitch is, bat accordingly, and then try and defend it. But obviously, confidence-wise, we are slightly getting better and better in terms of overall unit. It's just that one or two areas where we need to click, we need to fire, and we'll get better on from that,” Gaikwad said after Shubman Gill put CSK to bat first.
CSK Playing XI -
Sanju Samson (w), Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Urvil Patel, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Akeal Hosein, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh
Impact Subs list - Sarfaraz Khan, Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Veer, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Matthew Short.
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