IPL-2022: Ravindra Jadeja Gives It Back To MSD As Mumbai Registers Their First Win!

Right from the beginning of the IPL-2022 Ravindra Jadeja who was handed over the captaincy by Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MSD) had been going through an extremely lean patch. Being one of the greatest all-rounders of the game he had been consistently failing with the ball, with the bat and failing even in his specialty in fielding, dropping catches that is rare in his international career. Under his leadership CSK lost the first five games on the trot, then won the next two and again lost the 8^th; and Jadeja hardly contributed anything worthwhile in those games. So, it has been on the cards that something is going to happen as a captain cannot possibly be dropped. Finally, on Saturday, the 30^th of April 2022 Jadeja called it a day as captain and requested his leader-mentor MSD to take over again. And Dhoni obliged, and he will be leading CSK again in a crucial game against the tough SRH tonight. However, it’s not clear if Ravindra Jadeja was forced by the team management to step down or he found the burden of leadership too heavy to perform well which he in fact said in his official statement.

 

Now, the question arises as to why MSD should accept the captaincy again after resigning from the position prior to the start of the tournament. A young leadership was very much needed for the ageing franchise. Is it only his experience that counts? If so, how long would experience go on taking precedence over performance? Dhoni has performed hardly better than Jadeja except being the most dependable wicketkeeper and except for that match against MI when he brought back the vintage MSD as a Finisher that we wrote about recently. Besides, while in Team India as the wicketkeeper he had been captain Virat Kohli’s mentor for several years, and so, why has he not done so for Jadeja too. Or why the team management has not gone for a younger alternative instead of sticking on to experience. Perhaps it has more to do with ‘commercial’ reasons as CSK and MSD had been inseparable since the beginning of the tournament and if that is so, we have nothing to say since IPL has everything to do with commerce, much more than cricket. Anyway, it’d be interesting how Dhoni lead the team in Pune in the second game this evening. One more loss would virtually rule them out of the tournament.

 

Meanwhile, the beleaguered Mumbai franchise won their first game against RR, again thanks to the only successful batting duo of Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma as captain Rohit Sharma failed again. Jasprit Bumrah went wicketless again, but the rookie off-spinner Hrithik Shokeen along with Meredith restricted Rajasthan to a manageable 158/6. However, this victory is more of a face-saving affair than staying on as a tough contender in the hunt for a berth in the play-offs.

 

In the first of the double-header between RCB and the top performing GT last afternoon, Virat Kohli did pick up his first half-century of the tournament, but lost the match giving GT 16 points now with five games still left for them. Having played ten games so far gaining only ten points, for RCB the journey to the play-offs is going to be tough while Hyderabad has played only 8  and has 6 left to add to their ten points. Delhi who are playing against the formidable LSG in the first game today still has the chances to make a comeback with six games left to lift their present 8 points. Kolkata is struggling miserably at 6 points out of 9 games thanks to their celebrated non-performers.

PS: LSG gets back to the second position defeating DC in a tough match by 6 runs, opting to bat first). CSK beats SRH by 13 runs under MSD put into bat. Tough luck for Jadeja because  only in this match the opening duo of Ruturaj Gaikwad (missing a glorious ton at 99 out) and Devon Conway (85 not out) happened to fire all cylinders helping the team put up a huge target of 203 for SRH to win.