Picture by William West/Getty Images. Ruturaj Gaikwad bats for India A in Australia over the winter.
In Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yorkshire are getting a batter who has enjoyed success across all formats, most notably as far as this overseas spell is concerned scoring seven centuries in 38 first-class appearances with a best of 195.
Gaikwad, 28-years-old, is an Indian Premier League title winner with Chennai Super Kings, a team he has been captain of for the last two seasons.
The Pune-born right-hander has represented India A in first-class cricket and has made 29 senior appearances across both formats of limited overs cricket.
Gaikwad’s spell with the White Rose will see him play in the Rothesay County Championship from late July through to the end of the summer, while he will also be available for some Metro Bank One-Day Cup appearances through August.
He made his senior debuts across all formats in the 2016/17 Indian summer for Maharashtra and went on to make his T20I and ODI debuts in July 2021 and October 2022 respectively.
Picture by R. Satish Babu/Getty Images. Ruturaj Gaikwad is the current captain of the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.
Gaikwad’s first taste of the limelight came in the 2021 IPL with Chennai, this proving to be a stunning breakthrough campaign, in which he scored 635 runs – the most by any batter in the tournament – as CSK won their fourth title.
He had debuted for them the previous year.
In that memorable IPL run, he opened the batting, as he has done in his first-class career as well as slotting in at numbers three and four.
Gaikwad averages 41.77 in first-class cricket, scoring seven hundreds and 14 fifties in 38 appearances. His career best 195 came for Maharashtra against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy at the start of 2023, whilst opening the batting.
He has captained his state and India A in first-class, the latter on tour in Australia late last year.
Picture by Albert Perez/Getty Images. Ruturaj Gaikwad is joining Yorkshire on an overseas deal for the remainder of the Championship and 50-over summer.
A Maharashtra age-group player, Gaikwad has one senior international century to his name – 123 not out off 57 balls in a home defeat to Australia in November 2023.
Gaikwad clearly has many strings to his bow. He has the ability to bat long against the red ball and be explosive against the white.
He is one of only 15 batters ever, worldwide, to have reached the 220-mark in a List A innings. He achieved that whilst batting for Maharashtra in late 2022.
Yorkshire have a rich history when it comes to Indian overseas players, from a Sachin Tendulkar to Yuvraj Singh to Cheteshwar Pujara. Gaikwad’s name will now be added to that list from next month.
