Chennai Super Kings' pre-season camp at Chepauk in March-April has performed a key position of their success in IPL 2023. This was Ruturaj Gaikwad's evaluation after CSK beat Gujarat Titans on a tough Chennai pitch to make their tenth IPL remaining.

Several CSK gamers, together with Gaikwad himself, had by no means performed an IPL recreation in Chennai earlier than this season. The camp had begun on March 3, with captain MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane and Ambati Rayudu among the many first batch of gamers to have arrived within the metropolis. Gaikwad and tempo spearhead Deepak Chahar then joined the aspect late after finishing their rehab on the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.

"[The camp was] very vital because a new surface was being laid over in Chennai," Gaikwad mentioned on the press convention. "Everyone was not sure how the wicket is going to be or how the wicket is going to play. But sometimes when you play on flat tracks, you need not have to think much on your shots and not much about the [opposition] bowling. Sometimes batsmen play good shots and hats off to him. Even while you're batting, it's about getting into the zone.

"But in Chennai, it is barely completely different. You have to change your recreation in keeping with the pitch that's on condition that day. Sometimes, it is slower and typically it is good [for batting]. So, I feel it was good to have an thought about the way it was going to play. It positively helped me so much personally and everybody who was there within the camp. Tushar [Deshpande] was there from the primary day and likewise somebody like Raj [Rajvardhan Hangargekar] and all the kids had been additionally there from the primary day, so I feel it helped."

"A variety of effort [goes into our success]," Gaikwad said. "[It] began from final yr once we did not qualify [for playoffs]. Obviously, the administration received one thing to work on and there have been issues which we wanted to enhance and put an effort on, or add somebody. This yr, proper from the primary recreation, I feel we had been scientific and certain about who's going to play and who isn't going to play and what shall be our possible XII or XIII or XIV.

"I think right from the first game everyone knew about their roles. When the Sri Lankans came [late] - Theekshana and [Matheesha] Pathirana - I think they were up to the mark even from the first game. So, I think we were pretty much playing with the same team and just continued the momentum. And hats off to everyone - the support staff and the management as well."

"I think in the Delhi game, I'd say I had a slight advantage about the shorter boundary being there straight on both ends," Gaikwad mentioned. "So, after six overs, we [me and Devon Conway] personally felt 160-170 would be a good score, so just keep on batting until the 10th-11th over and then we thought one of us could just take some risks because we have Shivam Dube coming in, Mahi bhai coming in, Jaddu [Ravindra Jadeja] bhai coming in…a lot of big-hitters coming in.

"So, there was a barely completely different recreation there after 10-12 overs. But in Chennai, clearly huge boundaries, so you must discover the gaps and manoeurve some photographs and that is what I really feel Conway has been doing properly. So that is why he has been profitable."