Eight games into the season, Ravindra Jadeja stepped aside as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain and handed over their reins back to MS Dhoni. Incidentally, the leadership duties were handed to Jadeja a couple of days ahead of IPL 2022.
However, the celebrated all-rounder failed to cope with the pressure. Under his leadership, the Super Kings managed to win two games and were at the second-last in the points table. Ravindra Jadeja’s own game also took a beating as he was nowhere close to his personal best.
Throwing light on Jadeja’s decision to relinquish the duties, MS Dhoni said that the plan had always been for Jadeja to take over as captain this season. The 40-year-old wicket-keeper batter also added that while he had lent his support, he did not want to actively interfere with Jadeja’s decisions.
“I think Jadeja knew last season that he would be captaining this year. For the first two games, I simply oversaw his work and let him be later. After that, I insisted that he take his own decisions and bear responsibility for them. Once you become captain, it means a lot of demands come in. But it affected his mind as the tasks grew. I think captaincy burdened his prep and performances,” Dhoni said at the end of the game.
“So it was a gradual transition. Spoon-feeding doesn’t really help the captain, on the field you have to take those crucial decisions and you have to take responsibility for those decisions. Once you become the captain, we have to take care of many things and that also includes your own game,” he added.
Meanwhile, CSK returned to winning ways with MS Dhoni back at the helm. They defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 13 runs in a high-scoring thriller. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway put Chennai off to a blazing start that guided them 202 runs before they managed to defend the total.
“We were also losing a great fielder” – MS Dhoni
The veteran cricketer is hopeful that Ravindra Jadeja will regain his old form now that he has been relieved from captaincy, especially, on the field. CSK have had struggled with their fielding, dropping almost 20 catches so far in IPL 2022.
“Even if you relieve the captaincy and if you are at your best and that’s what we want. We were also losing a great fielder, we are struggling for a deep midwicket fielder, still we have dropped 17-18 catches and that’s a matter of concern. These are tough games and hopefully we will comeback strong, important to communicate with the bowlers,” MS Dhoni concluded.
