It isn’t a common sight to see MS Dhoni not lead the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. But on Thursday, it was the end of an era, when finally the team showed faith in a youngster, and handed over the reigns of the team to young Ruturaj Gaikwad. In the 250+ plus matches that the CSK has played over the years, Dhoni led them in 235, winning 142 of those and losing 90.
Only two other players have led the team apart from the Thala himself. The first instance was Suresh Raina, who on different occasions led the team in six matches and won only two of them, and the second time came when, before the 2022 season, Ravindra Jadeja was named the captain of the side.
But that ploy too did not go well, as in the eight matches Jaddu led the side, CSK lost six matches. Eventually, he handed back the captaincy to Dhoni, with the team finishing in the ninth spot, with just four wins in 14 matches. He had a win %age of 25, that showed, that Jadeja could not handle the pressure of being the skipper.
Ruturaj Gaikwad, the Future of CSK
Had Jadeja fared well, in all probability, he would have continued. But now it seems like CSK management trusts the 27-year-old Gaikwad completely, who has barely even played for Team India, and is not a certainty yet in any format.
Even the inability to deliver in his first season as captain wouldn’t mean much, as the weight of handling the CSK pressure can be immense. But going just by his batting prowess, CSK is in stable hands. Gaikwad has scored heavily for the team in the last few seasons, and last year, during their title winning run, had scored 590 runs from 16 matches.
As for the captaincy track record, Gaikwad led Team India to an Asian Games gold medal in 2023. The side consisted mostly of rookie Indian players, who are yet to make it big in the Indian team.
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