Ravindra Jadeja got the honour of becoming only the third player to ever captain the Chennai Super Kings – Suresh Raina had captained the franchise earlier when MS Dhoni was injured or rested – when he took the field on Saturday evening against Kolkata Knight Riders for the IPL 2022 season opener at the Wankhede.
Ravindra Jadeja has been part of the yellow army for a decade now, having been bought in the IPL 2012 auction; he played for the Gujarat Lions when CSK were banned in 2016 and 2017.
Now, in his first match as CSK’s skipper, Ravindra Jadeja has made the record of most IPL matches for a player in the tournament before making his captaincy debut. Jadeja had played in 200 IPL games before leading a side. Next on the list is Manish Pandey, who had featured in 153 matches in the IPL as a player before getting the chance to captain a team – he led SRH for the first time last season when Williamson was injured.
Next is Kieron Pollard, who captained Mumbai Indians for the first time, when Rohit was injured, after he had played 137 IPL games. R Ashwin with 111, Sanju Samson with 107, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar with 103 games under their belt before making IPL captaincy debut are next on this list.
In 200 IPL matches, Ravindra Jadeja has scored 2386 runs at an average of 27 and a strike rate of 128, along with 127 wickets.
RRRockstar M
rning!#Yellove #WhistlePodu ?? @imjadeja pic.twitter.com/giUat63leq
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) March 25, 2022
rning!Ravindra Jadeja was elated upon receiving the captaincy nod, but also admitted that it requires a mammoth effort to fill Dhoni’s big boots.
“Feeling good. At the same time, I also need to fill in big boots like Mahi bhai, [he] has already set the big legacy so I need to carry [that] forward. I don’t need to worry too much because he is here so whatever I have a question to ask, I’ll definitely go to him. He’ll be my go-to person. He was and still he is today, so I’m not worried too much,” Ravindra Jadeja said.
