"The timing was MS' call" - CSK coach Stephen Fleming sheds light on Dhoni's decision to quit captaincy

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) coach Stephen Fleming has revealed that MS Dhoni had a chat with him last season over his thoughts on giving up the captaincy. He also confirmed that the timing of the decision was a call taken by Dhoni.

Ravindra Jadeja led the Chennai franchise in the team’s opening IPL 2022 encounter against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Saturday. It wasn't a great start for the all-rounder as CSK went down by six wickets in the contest.

At a post-match press conference following Chennai’s defeat, Fleming opened up on the captaincy change that was announced just a couple of days before the IPL was to begin. He admitted:

“It had been something MS and I talked about in the last season,” and added, “The timing was MS’ call. It has been documented that he wanted to give Jadeja a clean slate going into the series. So, it was communicated with Mr. Srinivasan (franchise owner) and then filtered through the team. We 100 percent respect that.”

The former Kiwi captain also admitted that the team is likely to go through a transition phase with a new leader in charge, but asserted that things will work out smoothly. Fleming added:

"There’s going to be a bit of a transition period as we sort of develop the relationship with Jadeja and also have MS there. You don’t just discard a player because he doesn’t have the captaincy tag. (You) develop the new captain and work with the experience that you have got. Thankfully, we have got quite a bit of that. There’s a little bit of change, but we’ll work through that nicely.”

Jadeja looked out of sorts with the bat during his stay out in the middle. He returned unbeaten on 26 off 28 balls and was also involved in the run-out of Ambati Rayudu.

“MS getting runs a positive, but a pretty rusty performance” - Stephen Fleming on CSK’s batting

While Jadeja struggled to time the ball, Dhoni lifted his game after a slow start and ended up scoring an impressive fifty. The 40-year-old went from 15 off 25 to 50 off 38 in the last three overs.

Expressing satisfaction with Dhoni’s knock, CSK coach Fleming lamented the rusty batting effort from the top and middle order. He stated:

“It (Dhoni’s knock) was good but it would have been nice if the top order had fired. To have got enough batting is a positive. MS getting runs is a positive, but it was a pretty rusty performance all out. He was a positive but there’s a lot more improvement to be done.”

Chennai will next face the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on March 31.