‘Spoon-feeding doesn’t really help captain’: MS Dhoni on Jadeja relinquishing the captaincy
Ravindra Jadeja-MS Dhoni (Image Source : BCCI/IPL)
The 46th match of the Indian T20 League 2022 between Hyderabad and Chennai saw the return of MS Dhoni as the leader of the Men in Yellow. While MSD has been leading Chennai for all the season so far since the inception of ITL, he stepped down from the role just ahead of the 2022 season of the tournament.
The return of ‘Captain Cool’ also saw Chennai returning to winning ways. The openers of the team Devin Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad put up a stellar partnership of 182 runs for the first wicket. This helped Chennai to reach a massive total of 202 runs from their 20 overs. The bowlers executed their plans in the second innings and the men in yellow won the match by 19 runs.
Notably, Chennai was having a terrible time under Jadeja’s leadership. They lost six of their first eight outings and are languishing at the ninth position in the points table. The responsibilities were also affecting the all-rounder’s performance as he was nowhere near his original self with his on-field performances. Thus, Jadeja stepped down from the role and handed the responsibilities back to MSD.
After the match, Dhoni while speaking about Jadeja’s decision, said that he respected Jadeja’s decision as he felt that the duties of captaincy were burdening the all-rounder. “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.”
He knew and got enough time to prepare, what is important is you want him to lead the side and I wanted that transition to happen. At the end of the season, you don’t want him to feel as captaincy was done by someone else and I’m just going for the toss,”- MSD added.
While speaking about the transition of captaincy, Dhoni said that spoon-feeding ideas do not help and that one has to learn to take their decision and take responsibility for them. “So, it was a gradual transition. 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,”- said MS Dhoni. He concluded hoping that Jadeja being relieved of captaincy will be able to play more freely and bring out his best performance.
