Gaikwad’s captaincy against Bengaluru impresses Gavaskar

Chennai, March 23

The legendary Sunil Gavaskar is mighty impressed with Chennai Super Kings’ new captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and lauded him for the way he maneuvered his bowlers during the IPL opener against Royal Challengers Bengaluru here.

‘Commentator’ Karthik happy to get some runs

Chennai: Veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik is pleased about getting some runs in the IPL opener despite limited game and preparation time going into the tournament due to his commentary commitments. He was on air in the recently concluded India-England Test series.”It’s been extremely challenging, doing a bit of commentary and playing. So, I am happy that the first game has gone positively for me, and it feels good to score some runs,” he said. pti

Handed the leadership role just ahead of the IPL, Gaikwad has big shoes to fill and he made an impressive start under the tutelage of talisman MS Dhoni, guiding CSK to a six-wicket win.

“Your debut as a captain becomes very important. You want to begin your captaincy career well and that’s exactly what happened. What was impressive was his bowling changes,” the former India skipper told a TV channel.

“Because the way he kept on changing Mustafizur; the way he used Mustafizur was absolutely terrific. He kept swapping Deepak Chahar, keeping faith in Tushar Deshpande for that final over. I think seeing that Deshpande had been taken for 25, there was an opportunity to use another bowler, but he still stuck to Deshpande, and Deshpande responded. I think the captaincy was most impressive,” he said.