'Spoon-feeding doesn't really help a captain' - MS Dhoni draws light on Ravindra Jadeja's decision to relinquish captaincy

MS Dhoni took the world by storm when he decided to step down as Chennai's captain prior to the start of the Indian T20 league 2022. He gave the leadership responsibilities to Ravindra Jadeja. However, the all-rounder wasn't really able to thrive as a captain as Chennai lost six out of their eight games of this edition under him.

Besides, Jadeja wasn't able to contribute with either the bat or ball. Just a day prior to their game against Hyderabad, the 33-year-old handed over the captaincy back to Dhoni. This took all the fans by surprise. Nevertheless, Chennai did beat the orange army under the leadership of the legendary keeper-batter.

After the completion of the match, Dhoni drew light on Jadeja's stint as Chennai's captain. He stated that the captaincy pressure might have affected his mind. Further on, he also said that Jadeja knew during the last season itself that he was going to leas the franchise in the 2022 edition.

“I think Jadeja knew last season he’d be captaining this year. For the first two games, I oversaw his work and let him be later. After that, I insisted he’d take his own decisions and responsibility for them. Once you become captain, it means a lot of demands come in. But it affected his mind as the tasks grew. I think captaincy burdened his prep and performances,” said MS Dhoni during the post-match presentation.

In the meanwhile, the Indian legend said that he had planned a gradual transition. He also said that the southpaw got enough time to prepare. Last but not the least, Dhoni also stated that spoon-feeding doesn’t really help a captain.

“He knew and got enough time to prepare, what is important is you want him to lead the side and I wanted that transition to happen. At the end of the season, you don’t want him to feel as if the captaincy was done by someone else and I’m just going for toss.

So it was a gradual transition. Spoon-feeding doesn’t really help captain, on the field you have to take those crucial decisions and you have to take responsibility for those decisions,” he added.