Ravindra Jadeja was made the captain of the side before the start of the Indian Premier League last year but had to make way for the return of MS Dhoni as the skipper midway through the tournament
Ace allrounder Ravindra Jadeja, who was dumped as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain last year and had reportedly walked out of the team hotel in Mumbai, appears to have patched-up his relations with the franchise after a long and frank chat with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, according to a report.
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Jadeja was made the captain of the side before the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) last year but had to make way for the return of Dhoni as the skipper midway through the tournament after he failed to deliver the desired results. His removal from the post of captain and Dhoni’s stern comments seemed to have upset Jadeja, but chat with Dhoni – the pre-eminent authority in the CSK set-up – and also CEO Kasi Viswanathan have now cleared the “air of misunderstanding”, according to a report in Cricbuzz.
Jadeja’s interaction with the CSK authorities reportedly took place before he joined the team in Chennai. It is learnt that the franchise elders explained to Jadeja that captaincy was turning out to be a burden for him and hurting his performance and Jadeja understood. The franchise, however, is not willing to divulge any details about Jadeja’s one-on-one interactions with Dhoni and Viswanathan.
The allrounder had a forgettable season last year, scoring just 116 runs at an average of 19 and claiming a mere five wickets while going for over seven runs per over.
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“I think Jadeja knew last season he’d be captaining this year. For the first two games, I oversaw his work and let him be later. After that, I insisted he’d take his own decisions and 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 after a match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 1 last year.
However, from what has been shared by the franchise on social media, the mood in the camp is upbeat. The franchise shared a video of Jadeja’s reunion with Dhoni at CSK’s practice session on March 23 that showed the two long-term friends engaging in some happy banter. Then an Instagram post by the franchise featured a silhouette photograph of Jadeja in the CSK jersey with the caption “Tell the world, Thalapathy (The Leader) is here.”
Jadeja had hurt his knee in the Asia Cup and was out of action since September 2022 before returning strongly in the just-concluded Test and ODI series against Australia. Jadeja has 2,502 runs in 210 matches in the IPL with a strike rate of 127.59. He has also bagged 132 wickets. He has been a part of the CSK franchise in two phases. The first phase lasted from 2012 to 2015. He returned to the side again in 2018 after CSK came back into the IPL following a two-year ban and continues to be a part of the Yellow Brigade.
“Jaddu is fine, he is happy to be back with the team and is very keen to do well. He is looking forward to the season,” a CSK official told Cricbuzz.
CSK begin their IPL campaign this year with a match against defending champions Gujarat Titans on March 31 and will be looking to add to their four IPL titles.
