IPL 2022: Captaincy was having an effect on Jadeja’s game – MS Dhoni

Chennai Super Kings veteran MS Dhoni took back the captaincy role from Ravindra Jadeja after the franchise released an official statement on Saturday. Jadeja could not lead from the front as CSK could only manage two wins in the first eight matches of the season. Furthermore, Jadeja could not deliver the goods as he scored only 112 runs and picked five wickets in the eight games.

Dhoni, who has all the captaincy experience under his belt, believes Jadeja was feeling the brunt of the captaincy and it was affecting his personal game. Thus, Dhoni decided to take back the captaincy reins from the all-rounder.

In fact, Dhoni revealed he told Jadeja about the captaincy decision in the previous season. However, it was noticed that Dhoni was only making the bowling changes and calling the change in the field for the franchise despite Jadeja being the captain.

“Between me and 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 in 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.”

Dhoni added that the captaincy burden was taking a toll on Ravindra Jadeja mentally and he wasn’t able to focus on his individual game, which was hampering the team’s performance.

“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.”

Meanwhile, CSK returned to winning ways with MS Dhoni as captain after they defeated SRH by 13 runs. CSK will next take on RCB at the MCA, Pune on Wednesday.