After a poor start to the season, Ruturaj Gaikwad returned back to form during Chennai Super Kings' match against SunRisers Hyderabad at the MCA Stadium in Pune. Gaikwad smashed a brilliant 99 as CSK went on to post a total of 202 for two in 20 overs. During his knock against SRH, Ruturaj completed 1,000 runs in the IPL. It took Gaikwad just 31 innings to reach the milestone, the joint-fastest Indian to do so. Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar, who plied his trade for the Mumbai Indians, also took 31 innings to achieve the feat.
Fastest to reach 1,000 IPL runs (Indians)
Sachin Tendulkar - 31
Ruturaj Gaikwad - 31
Suresh Raina - 34
Devdutt Padikkal - 35
Rishabh Pant - 35
Gaikwad missed out on his second IPL ton, as he was dismissed on 99 by T Natarajan.
Gaikwad, who had made his debut for CSK during IPL 2020, won the orange cap last season after 635 runs at an average of 45.35.
On the eve of the match against SRH, CSK announced that MS Dhoni will lead the team again after Ravindra Jadeja decided to relinquish his captaincy.
Jadeja, who was named captain of CSK three days before the start of the ongoing season, is going through a dip in form.
So far, in eight matches, Jadeja has scored 112 runs at an average of 22.40 and at a strike-rate of 121.74. With the ball, he has taken just five wickets in eight matches at an economy of 8.19 RPO.
CSK are currently ninth in the table with four points.