GT vs CSK IPL 2022: Ravindra Jadeja`s injury not big, something wrong at CSK, says Sanjay Manjrekar

Chennai Super Kings said that Jadeja was quitting the captaincy because he wanted to focus on his all-round game but experts believe that may not be the reason for giving captaincy back to Dhoni

Chennai Super Kings have been under extreme pressure in IPL 2022, both on and off the field. Firstly, MS Dhoni stepped down as CSK captain before the start of the season to send shockwaves all over the world and the captaincy was handed over to Ravindra Jadeja. But then Jadeja began to feel the heat as skipper, failing to take decisions at crunch moments in the game. 

Due to this pressure, he quit as captain and handed over the captaincy back to MSD and no one knew whether he volunteered to relinquish it or was forced to do so. But one must understand that since he gave up leadership, he was performing poorly, even dropping catches for which he is not known for.

After a few games, one more twist came when Jadeja was ruled out of IPL 2022 due to an injury. CSO CEO Kasi Viswanathan then was seen giving many interviews trying to save the situation as CSK unfollowed Ravindra Jadeja on social media app Instagram. 

Viswanathan however said that there is no love lost between the franchise and Jadeja. 

If former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar is to be believed, not all is right between the two. 

Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, he said that his injury did not look that big so ruling him out of the tournament due to injury does not look like the reason.

"When a team doesn’t qualify for the playoffs twice in three seasons, something is happening. There has been no official statement from the outside. Jadeja has become unavailable for the entire season.

"On the ground, it didn’t seem like a big injury. So you can say that something or the other is happening,” Manjrekar said.

Manjrekar also said that CSK would have done better under the captaincy of Dhoni if he was the captain right from the start of the season.

"First half is where the team solidifies its position in the points table. They took a few blows there – Ruturaj Gaikwad wasn’t very consistent, they missed Deepak Chahar a lot, kept on searching for a seam bowler, and then they lost Dhoni’s leadership too.

"I don’t blame Jadeja for that because he was given that leadership. It might have been different had Dhoni-led continuously," he added.