"I was shocked he didn't get more opportunities with Team India," Sehwag said in reference to Gaikwad, making the bold "Dhoni" forecast

Ruturaj Gaikwad tops the Orange Cap list after round one of the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL), having scored an incredible 92 against the defending champion Gujarat Titans in the season opening in Ahmedabad. Despite the fact that Gaikwad’s attempts were ineffective, he did leave a lasting impression that may be very helpful in his future efforts to rejoin the Indian squad. The legendary batsman Virender Sehwag expressed his admiration for the performance at the Narendra Modi Stadium by making the bold forecast that the CSK rookie would become MS Dhoni.

Gaikwad was selected for the Indian team as a result of his outstanding performance in the IPL 2021, where he amassed 635 runs in 16 matches while contributing a century and four fifty-sevens to CSK’s successful run. He played in his first ODI game in 2022 after making his debut in the T20I series against Sri Lanka in 2021.

In an interview with Cricbuzz, Sehwag said that he was shocked that Gaikwad did not receive more playing time for the Indian team. The 26-year-old only made 10 games for India, nine of which were T20Is, during which time he only managed to score 135 runs with one fifty.

The former India hitter believes that the CSK star can make a return to the Indian squad and firmly establish his spot following a brilliant performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he scored 295 runs in six games with two hundred. Sehwag also made the audacious claim that Gaikwad is the rightful successor to Dhoni’s captaincy position at CSK, passing over players like the hotly debated Ben Stokes and Ravindra Jadeja, who was given the opportunity last year.