MS Dhoni who returned as the captain for the Chennai Super Kings in the middle of the IPL 2022 season reveals the reason behind the captaincy switch over in the middle of the ongoing IPL season.
MS Dhoni Backs Jadeja
Ahead of the IPL 2022 season, CSK named R Jadeja as the new captain after MS Dhoni stepped down from the role. But Jadeja kick-started his captaincy career with a series of defeats where out of 8 games he led, CSK only managed to win 2 matches which moves CSK to the bottom position of the IPL 2022 points table.
Ahead of their league match against SRH, CSK announced that MS Dhoni will return as the captain without highlighting the reasons behind this. Statically, MS Dhoni-led CSK won the match by 13 runs after setting a massive target.
CSK crossed the 200-run mark after their opening batsman showed an aggressive partnership between them.
The duo scored 182 runs for their first wicket where Gaikwad missed his maiden IPL 2022 century by 1 run. Notably, the duo entered the top 5 list of the highest opening partnership in IPL since 2008.
In the post-match presentation ceremony, Dhoni told that the victory was set up by the openers who put on 182 for the first wicket.
“When you’re in the same dressing room, you keep saying the same thing. It’s not like when you change the captain, a lot of things change.
You know it’s one of those coincidences where we got off to a very good start, you make the most of a good wicket, force the bowlers to bowl in areas where we wanted to hit, so I feel the kind of target we got was a very good one and after that we needed some very good bowling because a bit of dew comes later and makes it slightly difficult.”
Dhoni also revealed that he offered to help out Ravindra Jadeja only at the start of the season in order to smoothen the captaincy transition so that Jadeja got to learn the trade by himself.
“Between me and Ravindra Jadeja, he knew last season itself that he will be given a chance to captain this year,” Dhoni recalled. “So he knew about it, got enough time to prepare. What’s important is you want him to lead the side.
I wanted that transition to happen so the first game and second game there was a bit more information going into Jaddu but after that I left it to him because at the end of 5-6 (games) or the full season, you don’t want him to feel that the captaincy was done by somebody else and I was just going for the toss.
“So it was a gradual transition where I said ‘ok this is what I will do, I will take care of the fielding angles for the first game, second game and after that, you have to decide because that’s the only way you will learn what captaincy is.
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.”
However, with CSK losing six out of their opening eight games, Jadeja decided to hand the leadership duties back to Dhoni in order to focus on his own performances.
“What’s important is once you become the captain, you have to take care of a lot of things and that also includes taking care of your own game and with him his mind was working a lot,” Dhoni pointed out.
“And it’s not easy to control your mind, it’s the strongest feature. Once the mind starts working, it doesn’t really stop. So what really happens is the individual is not able to relax.
“What I felt was it was having an effect on his game. When he was going into bat or when it comes to his preparation he is putting this burden which is affecting his game because I would love to have a Jadeja as a bowler, as a batter and a fielder.
Even if you relieve captaincy and you’re at your best that’s what we really want because we were also losing a great fielder, we are struggling for a deep midwicket fielder. We have dropped 17-18 catches and it’s a matter of concern.”
Dhoni was also hopeful of some of the younger bowlers in the squad stepping up to the mark as they aim to make the most of the five remaining games in the league phase. Even though they didn’t have the services of Dwayne Bravo on Sunday, the likes of Mukesh Choudhary and Maheesh Theekshana stepped up in the crucial win.
“These are tough games and hopefully we will comeback stronger,” he said. “We have some new bowlers and it’s important for them to keep learning from every game because we don’t want our bowlers to be lost.
“If you see a Bravo or a Pretorius (Dwaine) they know what they are doing so you give them information and back off. But with younger bowlers, you don’t really know what they will come up with so you have to give them a field, you have to talk to them, you also have to tell them that in this field these are the variations you can also use. Because it’s a very lonely place, once they have the ball in their hands, they are on their own.”
Chennai Super Kings will face Faf du Plessis-led Royal Challengers Bangalore to play the 49th league match of the IPL 2022 in Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune.
