Former India coach Ravi Shastri has been unimpressed with the captaincy of Ravindra Jadeja as the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) experienced their worst ever start in the Indian Premier League having lost their first four matches in the ongoing IPL 2022 season.
The defending champions CSK lost their 4th match in a row to Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 9 and Ravi Shastri questioned the logic behind MS Dhoni and CSK naming Ravindra Jadeja as the new captain before the start of the season.
Dhoni, who led CSK in all IPL seasons the franchise has featured in, quit as captain two days before the IPL 2022 began and Ravindra Jadeja was named the new captain. Shastri opines that if CSK knew MS Dhoni will be stepping down as captain, they should have retained Faf du Plessis in the IPL 2022 auction.
He also said that with Du Plessis as captain, Jadeja would have played freely and things could have been different for the four-time IPL champions.
“I feel that someone like Jadeja, should focus on his own game. If Chennai were to think back, they wouldn't have let go of Faf du Plessis. He [du Plessis] is a match-winner, he has won the IPL with Chennai, he has a lot of experience,” Shastri said on the ESPNCricinfo show.
While MS Dhoni has led the CSK to four IPL titles till now, Ravindra Jadeja doesn’t have much experience of captaining a team, barring leading the Indian U19 team in 2007.
Shastri added: "If Dhoni was thinking of giving up the captaincy, then Faf should have been given the job, and Jadeja should have continued as [just] a player. He would have played freely, without the pressure of captaincy. Things could have been different for Chennai then."
Faf du Plessis was the second-highest run-getter in IPL 2021 season, one run behind Orange Cap winner Ruturaj Gaikwad. He made 633 runs at the top at an average of 45.21. Now Du Plessis leads the RCB team, who bought him for INR 7 crores in the IPL auction in February.
