Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batter Subramaniam Badrinath has heavily criticised Ruturaj Gaikwad’s recent form with the bat. This comes after the five-time champions suffered a home defeat at the hands of the Gujarat Titans on Sunday, April 26.

Gaikwad went on to score an unbeaten 74 from 60 balls to help CSK post a respectable 158 runs on the board after losing early wickets. The right-handed batter reached his half century is 49 balls, which was the fourth slowest 50 in the history of the Super Kings franchise. 

Badrinath was not pleased by Gaikwad’s innings on Sunday and called out his lack of intent.

The former player believes it is high time the CSK captain finds his form and is baffled that he is still struggling with the bat, even with more than half of the season gone. 

"Ruturaj has done nothing impactful at all this season. He hasn't given even one match-winning performance. How long can the wait be for him to rediscover form? It's been eight matches, and the season is almost finished,” Badrinath was quoted as saying on his YouTube channel.

"Ruturaj Gaikwad has been in poor form. Even this innings was laboured.

Guys elsewhere are scoring 50's and 100s of 15 and 30 balls. But Ruturaj is batting with no intent,” he added. 

Gaikwad has struggled to find quick runs whilst opening the batting for CSK this season. The skipper has scored 178 so far this season, whilst averaging 25.42 and scoring at a strike-rate of 121.08. This happens to be his lowest strike-rate since his debut IPL campaign in 2020. It is worth mentioning that his overall strike-rate in the tournament is 136.24 after 79 matches. 

CSK’s defeat to GT puts them sixth in the points table, having picked up, having picked up six points from eight games.

However, they have lost just twice in their last five matches. Their next game is against the Mumbai Indians on Saturday, May 2, at Chepauk.