Before the start of this season of the IPL, Mahendra Singh Dhoni handed over the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captaincy over to Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. However, that didn’t work out well with Chennai winning just 2 off their first 8 games in the tournament to be in 9th place in the table, far away from the playoff spots.
CSK won the previous edition of the IPL under MS Dhoni’s captaincy but this season has gone terribly for them so far. Not just the team’s performance, but Jadeja’s individual performances also seemed to be suffering due to the pressure of captaincy. Jadeja even dropped some catches on the field, his strongest suit where he is considered the best in the world among active players by most observers.
Now with Chennai needing to win all their remaining games to make a claim for the playoff spots, Jadeja has relinquished the captaincy and asked Dhoni to lead the team once again, an offer Dhoni has accepted. This decision was announced by Chennai Super Kings through their Twitter account.
CSK further said that Ravindra Jadeja has decided to relinquish captaincy to focus and concentrate more on his game & has requested MS Dhoni to lead CSK. MS Dhoni has accepted to lead CSK in the larger interest & to allow Jadeja to focus on his game.
CSK have failed to make the playoffs only once, in 2020, except during the two years when they were suspended from the competition over the betting activities of their owners. However, this season, they are in real danger of missing out on the playoffs unless they win all their remaining games. Whether Dhoni can use his Midas touch to turn around the fortunes of the team, we will wait and see.