IPL 2022: A rocky transition for Chennai Super Kings

With MS Dhoni still calling the shots in a team led by Ravindra Jadeja, things haven't quite gone to plan for the four-time champions"Can you please tell us who the captain is? You stand at the deep and the field gets changed," a journalist didn't mince words and had Ravindra Jadeja on the wrong foot for a moment. Chennai Super Kings, under Jadeja, had just lost their third IPL match in a row - a new low in the history of the franchise - and it wasn't unjustified to ask why things were going wrong so far for the defending champions. While Jadeja had to face the uncomfortable questions off the field, it was quite clear that he wasn't the actual leader of the team on it.

Other than going in for the toss, Jadeja, on the field, hasn't had much role as the skipper and the journalist was right in pointing out that every field, or bowling change was being handled by Dhoni. The TV cameras closed in too as coach Stephen Fleming, during one of the breaks, was doing all the discussion with Dhoni as Jadeja seemed like a bystander. "I feel that Dhoni is still captain of the team. When I look at Jadeja, he is fielding outside the ring. By doing that you won't be able to control too many things and he has given headache to Dhoni to look after the field setting. He is shedding some of his own weight and putting it on Dhoni's shoulders," Harbhajan Singh, former CSK and Mumbai Indians offie, explained the situation in a post-match TV show. It is not the most charitable remark for Jadeja, who probably sees the CSK captaincy as a steppingstone for staking claim as India's white ball skipper after Rohit Sharma. Jadeja is comfortably India's No. 1 allrounder in white-ball cricket and the fact that his contemporaries like KL Rahul, Shreyas