In a largely unexpected, mid-season IPL development, Ravindra Jadeja handed back Chennai Super Kings’ captaincy to MS Dhoni, just over a month after taking over the leadership baton from the wicketkeeper-batter ahead of the 2022 IPL.

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Dhoni, Chennai’s skipper in every season that hey’ve appeared in the IPL (2008-2015, 2018-2021), relinquished the captaincy for the 2022 tournament, handing over the reins to his deputy Jadeja. The defending champions haven’t had a great season so far, winning just two of their first eight games, and are currently languishing in ninth in the ten-team table, with a net run-rate of – 0.538.

The franchise announced that Jadeja had “decided to relinquish captaincy to focus and concentrate more on his game and has requested MS Dhoni to lead CSK.”

The statement added that MS Dhoni, who has retired from international cricket and now only features in IPL, “has accepted to lead CSK in the larger interest and to allow Jadeja to focus on his game”.

Under Dhoni, CSK have won the IPL four times; they are the current reigning champions.

Following the announcement, there were plenty of reactions on social media: while some were puzzled at the sudden change of leadership, others said that the switch hardly mattered, given that Chennai are nearly out of playoffs contention already.

https://twitter.com/ravs10/status/1520414405321965570