[ad_1]
As shocking was the decision at the start of the season, the news that broke from the Chennai Super Kings camp on Saturday evening seemed a rather expected one. Ravindra Jadeja has decided to hand over CSK’s captaincy back to MS Dhoni after incurring a poor start to his leadership stint, in a bid to focus on his game. And none of the former cricketers expressed their surprise over the news and rather univocally hailed the decision of giving the role back to Dhoni. (FOLLOW IPL 2022 FULL COVERAGE)
The veteran wicketkeeper-batter led the Chennai side since the inaugural in season 2008 and barring the two seasons in between where the franchise was suspended owing to corruption charges. Under his leadership, Chennai missed the playoffs qualification only once and bagged the title four times.
However, before the start of the 15th season, Dhoni passed on the baton to Jadeja and Chennai have since suffered six defeats in eight games so far to stand ninth in the points table. Following the poor run of form as a captain, Jadeja has urged Dhoni to take over the role once again and the latter accepted.
ALSO READ: IPL 2022: MS Dhoni back as CSK captain after Ravindra Jadeja steps down
“We have been saying this from day 1 that if MS Dhoni is not the captain then nothing can happen to Chennai. Better late than never. They still have the opportunity, they have matches in their hand, now there will be a turnaround,” India great Virender Sehwag reacted to the news on Cricbuzz.
“When they made him the captain, I don’t think he had a choice, now that his captaincy has been taken away, he still didn’t have an option. If Dhoni is there in a team, he has to be the captain. I said the same thing even when India were playing in the 2019 World Cup. I think somewhere Jadeja is happy as well. It was indeed a huge burden on his shoulder,” former India cricketer Ajay Jadeja, who was part of the discussion, added.
Not just his captaincy, Jadeja’s performance had dipped as well. In IPL 2022, he has scored just 112 runs in 92 balls at a strike rate of 121.7 with a boundary every 8.3 balls while also picking five wickets in eight innings at an economy rate of 8.19.
Meanwhile, former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan sympathised with Jadeja, hoping that the decision does not affect him as a cricketer. “I really Feel for Ravindra Jadeja. Let’s hope it doesn’t effect him as a cricketer in a negative way,” he tweeted.
“There were questions whether there was a lot on his plate and it hasn’t quite worked out and he realised that. He has come to terms with the fact that he is not ready at this stage and he has a really good guy to fall back on in MSD. He ha has a huge amount of experience and has a calm character and may be now Jadeja can have a great end to the season with the bat and ball,” former South Africa captain Graeme Smith told Star Sports.
[ad_2]
Source link