Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith lauded Ravindra Jadeja’s decision to give up the captaincy of Chennai Super Kings, saying the star all-rounder may have realised that leadership is not right for him at this point of his career. In an unforeseen decision, CSK announced on April 30 that Jadeja handed over the captaincy back to Dhoni just after 8 matches into the IPL 2022 season.
CSK said Jadeja wanted to focus more on his game and Dhoni in turn accepted the request made by the all-rounder. It has been a dramatic few weeks for CSK in IPL 2022 as Dhoni had stepped down from the role just 2 days in the lead up to the new season, handing over the baton to Jadeja. While the all-rounder was expected to come out of Dhoni’s shadows, Jadeja struggled to get going with both bat and ball.
Jadeja managed just 112 runs in 8 matches in IPL 2022 as CSK won only 2 out of their first 8 matches. Jadeja did not look sharp on the field and was seemingly lacking in confidence when he was out in the middle.
“I think you have got to really focus on Jadeja, he got the captaincy at the late stage going into the tournament. Everyone was questioning whether he had a lot on his plate with the bat, ball, and on the field. And it hasn’t quite worked out,” Smith said.
“He has realised that. He has come to terms with the fact that at this stage, maybe leadership is not for him and he has got a really good guy to fall back on MSD. He has got a huge amount of experience and a calm character. Let’s hope Jaddu can have a great finish to the season with bat and the ball,” he added.
