Ruturaj Gaikwad got off to a good start as captain of the Chennai Super Kings, leading the team to 3 wins in 5 matches. Gaikwad was chosen as MS Dhoni’s successor by ‘Tara’ himself and he did not disappoint, despite his own admission that his form with the bat could have been better. As CSK continues its march towards playoff qualification, Virender Sehwag gave a vital piece of advice to Gaikwad through the story of Dhoni’s 2007 T20 World Cup win.

In a chat with Cricbuzz, Sehwag shared some important insights about the captaincy and highlighted that when India won the ICC World T20 title in 2007, no one expected Dhoni to lead the national team to the title.

“I predicted a long time ago that he will be the captain of CSK because he has shown these signs and has the ability. You can look at captaincy based on results or you can look at captaincy based on whether he has leadership skills. He is both. Yes. Look, no one expects MS Dhoni to win the T20 World Cup.

It was only after Dhoni’s success in the shortest format that his reputation improved and India became a strong contender to win the 2011 ODI World Cup. Dhoni led the team to success in that tournament and the subsequent 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

Likewise, Sehwag expects Gaikwad’s reputation to improve if CSK wins the IPL this season.

“But after he won, the expectations got bigger and then they started thinking about making him the ODI captain. Like Gaikwad, the results will come with time but he did show composure and Shows signs of composure and uses his ability to bowl well. He is the best player currently captaining CSK,” he said.

With this win, CSK moved to fourth place in the 10-team points table, while KKR ranked second.