“To be very honest, we all know the kind of player he is, at one point of time it looked like CSK would score 220-230,” Hardik said after Gujarat Titans secured a tight five-wicket win. “We were finding it difficult as to what areas we should bowl because he’s an all-round cricketer, plays cricketing shots.”
He seemed to have carried the same form over into the IPL. Hardik found out in as early as the second over itself that Gaikwad was batting in a different zone, when the batter picked him for consecutive boundaries.
Hardik would come under his wheel even more, when Gaikwad launched him for consecutive sixes in the seventh over. Every other Titans bowler, barring Rashid Khan, was taken to the cleaners.
“I genuinely felt that we can’t err to him at all; some of the shots that he played, they weren’t to bad balls,” Hardik said. “They were actually good balls, that made the big difference and more challenging for us as a bowling unit and captain. Full credit to him, if he continues batting like this, he’s going to do wonders to Indian cricket. I’m sure he has the game, when the time comes I’m sure the Indian cricket team will also back him enough.”
“He’s an outstanding talent, really untapped,” Fleming said. “We rate him so highly, when you see him playing like that, he’s a class player. He’s got power, got touch and only good things will happen to him. Tonight was an exhibition. He was disappointed [to be dismissed for 92], he could’ve picked on a little more to give us an extra 20 runs in the end but the 90 runs he got was a pleasure to watch.”