Leader. King. Captain.
One Definition for all these words is the man-in-form , MS Dhoni. A man who had been the face of Indian Cricket for more than a decade. His contribution for CSK, One of the most successful franchises in IPL History, Only second to Mumbai Indians in list of highest number of seasons won, is nothing short of a legacy.
Prior to the start of the IPL 2022, the former Indian Skipper had announced that he will be stepping down as captain of CSK, shifting his responsibilities to one of his best mates, Ravindra Jadeja. The role which is entirely new for Jaddu had proven to be very challenging for the Falcon. With losing his four matches as a captain of CSK, The Champion team found itself hanging at the bottom of the table.
For the first two matches, the team seemed to be struggling in getting their perfect playing 11 from the given mix of players. The absence of the Powerplay guardian of CSK, Deepak Chahar and Moeen Ali had left a large gap to fill for the skipper.
With Moeen Joining the Franchise for the third game, and their opening pair slowly getting into the rhythm, They seemed to be getting back into the track. Their 5th Match against RCB has been a batting paradise for their team, As the middle order fired for a massive total of 217.
They managed to win their 5th game of IPL 2022, registering their first win of the season and also the first for Jadeja as a Skipper. But, The Bowling still seemed to be a bigger concern for them with almost every bowler’s economy averaging above 8 RPO. That has proved to be a bigger threat for their next match against Gujarat Titans, in which they had lost.
The talk of the town following the loss was the 18th Over of the match bowled by Chris Jordan, On which he conceded over 25+ Runs. Apart from these, The Skipper’s performance too is not up to his potential. His batting seemed to be too sloppy with a strike rate of just 120+ and his fielding too had seen a downsurge with dropping of 3 catches which is an extremely rare sight compared to the skill level of Jadeja.
However, they managed to win their match against MI, who are having a miserable season, losing all the 7 matches they played. With 2 wins in 8 matches, The team’s playoff chances seem to be diminishing. Also his underperformance and his care towards his team had pushed Jadeja to step down as captain and turned him to focus towards his game. His small stint as a captain of CSK had not seemed to be a bed of roses for him as well as the team.
With Captain Cool again taking charge of the ship, The team is pretty confident and looking forward to getting back to what they were doing best.
An exciting season is ahead and as our gaffer, Stephen Fleming said, “Never Ever Write off CSK”.
Happy Reading!
