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A few days back, former India cricketer Virender Sehwag, when asked to choose between the two young Indian captains in IPL 2024 – Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad – the legendary opener stated that while the GT skipper doesn’t have “support,” the latter has MS Dhoni by his side. However, amid CSK claiming their third win this season, against Kolkata Knight Riders at Chepauk, where Gaikwad carved out a match-winning knock, Sehwag was all praise for the youngster as he handed him an MSD moniker before labelling him as a perfect captaincy successor to the wicketkeeper-batter.
Recalling his 2021 prediction, Sehwag, in conversation with Cricbuzz, explained that a captain can either be judged on the results he produces or by showing his leadership abilities. He exemplified his notion by saying that no one had believed that Dhoni would lead a second-string Indian side to a T20 World Cup victory in 2007. But post his win, BCCI made him the ODI captain and later the Test skipper.
Sehwag feels that while results are yet to show, Gaikwad has certainly shown signs that he is the perfect heir to Dhoni in CSK.
“I had predicted this long back that he would be the captain of CSK because he had shown those signs and had the abilities. You can either look at a captain based on results or whether he has leadership abilities. And he has both. See, nobody expected MS Dhoni to win the T20 World Cup.
“But after he won, the expectations became bigger and then they started thinking about making him the ODI captain as well. Same with Gaikwad, results will show with time, but he has definitely shown the signs that he is cool and calm and uses his bowlers well. He is the best player to captain CSK right now,” he said.
Gaikwad on Monday stood tall in the tricky chase of 138 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium as he scored an unbeaten 67 off 58 balls to wrap up the game with 14 balls to spare.
CSK, who stand fourth in the points table, will next face Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on April 14.
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