It won’t be wrong to say that IPL 2023 was the season of openers. The likes of Shubman Gill, Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devon Conway among others produced consistent performances while opening the innings for their respective franchises.
Among the top performers was Gaikwad who had an impressive outing for Chennai Super Kings, hitting 590 runs in 15 innings and played a vital innings in the rain-curtailed title clash against Gujarat Titans setting the foundation for a thrilling win.
Gaikwad has already represented India across 10 T20Is and an ODI. While he’s yet to replicate his domestic and IPL success at the international level, the youngster surely has been earmarked as a future India star with the legendary Wasim Akram backing him.
“He (Gaikwad) came up with an excellent performance under pressure (during the final). The plus with him is that he is physically very fit. He is a very good fielder and is young as well. Gaikwad has a bright future when it comes to Indian cricket as well as the franchises he plays for,” Akram said on Sportskeeda.
The star of the season with the bat was Shubman Gill who racked up 890 runs in 17 innings including three centuries and four half-centuries. In the final, he had again gotten off to a blistering start with a flurry of boundaries before Ravindra Jadeja outfoxed him with a superb delivery.
Former India cricketer Mohammed Kaif pointed out how Gill has worked on himself to reap the rewards.
“Gill is a very organized player and is mentally very strong. He knows how to score depending on the conditions. When big players strike form, they don’t relax. They are alert mentally and want to maximize their gains. The hunger and hard work Gill puts in during practice is evident. He singlehandedly won the game for Gujarat against Mumbai (in Eliminator),” Kaif said.
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