All you need to know about the Chennai Super Kings-Ravindra Jadeja rift

All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been associated with the Chennai Super Kings since 2012 when the franchise first bought him for a whopping $2 million. That particular auction showed how desperate the then two-time champions were to get the all-rounder in their squad. Once they did, CSK ended up as runners-up four times, in 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2019, and lifted the cup twice in 2018 and 2021.

CSK is a franchise that is known to build a strong relationship with not just the squad members, but also everyone from their family alongside the crew and support staff and all the stakeholders for that matter. And in the case of the Jadeja-CSK relation, the franchise even handed him the captaincy before the start of the IPL 2022.

But all of that came under the scanner when the rumors of the rift between the ace all-rounder and the franchise began. It was a rough season for CSK this year as under Jadeja’s captaincy, the team lost six of its eight games, and the all-rounder’s performance saw a drastic downfall. The rumors of a rift began when CSK reappointed MS Dhoni as the captain midway in the tournament, and soon Jadeja was ruled out owing to an injury and hence missed the remainder of IPL 2022.

Its now being reported that Jadeja is all but set to end his ties with the franchise and there have been several instances which have fueled this rumours.

Let’s have a look at the instances that built up the rumors:

1. CSK Captaincy saga 

Chennai Super Kings have only grown over the years, ever since the inception of the league and the main man behind the team’s success has been MS Dhoni, the skipper. After leading the side for over a decade, Dhoni, before the IPL 2022, decided to hand over the baton to his best man- Ravindra Jadeja. But the plan didn’t quite work and things fell out of place for the franchise as CSK struggled to win games. As Jadeja’s form was under the scanner, MS Dhoni was reappointed as the skipper mid-way.

2. Abrubt Injury

Handing over the captaincy back to MS Dhoni midway through the tournament raised many questions, but the management said that they did not want to compromise on Jadeja’s form as a player, which had declined due to the added captaincy pressure. But as soon as Dhoni came back to the captain’s role, Jadeja missed out on a few games due to injury, and later it was announced by the management that the all-rounder had been ruled out of the remaining games. That is when the rumors of the rift began.

3. Jadeja’s Instagram activities 

The rumors sparked, people started talking, and Jadeja and CSK were trending on Twitter, but there had not been anything legitimate to prove the same. While that gave a sense of relief to the fans, Jadeja’s actions on social media got everyone talking, again. He deleted all his Instagram posts, related to the franchise, from 2021 and 2022, and added the not-so-needed spice to the already burning fire. It then came to notice that the all-rounder had stopped following CSK’s Instagram page too.

4. Jadeja’s Press Conference

After smashing a century against England in the fifth and rescheduled Test match, Jadeja marked his return to cricket in style after overcoming the injury concerns. Post the day’s play, when he attended a press conference, he was asked a question that whether the CSK captaincy fiasco was on the back of his mind bothering him when he walked out to bat. To which, Jadeja replied ‘absolutely not’ and said that he had been focused on representing his nation and doing well for the Indian team, and left the CSK fans unamused.

5. Cryptic Social Media posts

All of what was happening was not enough, on July 18, the 33-year-old uploaded a mysterious story to his Instagram account that read: ‘Don’t lower your standards for anyone or anything. Self-respect is everything.’ Amidst all the rift rumors, Jadeja’s cryptic story added fuel to the long burning fire. After his actions, ‘We Yellove you Jadeja’ was viral on Twitter as the fans shared tweets urging Jadeja not to break bonds with the franchise. Notably, CSK keeps sharing congratulatory posts for the all-rounder every time he performs well, or every time he is named in the squad.

6. Jadeja’s Twitter actions

Just a few days back, some Twitter users noticed Jadeja’s action on the platform and it came to notice that he had deleted his viral comment from one of CSK’s tweets. Before the IPL, the franchise uploaded a collage of Jadeja donning the yellow jersey from back in 2012 and a recent picture from 2022 with the caption “10 Years of Super Jaddu” to bring to light the player’s ten-year long association with CSK. Jadeja had posted a very sweet comment on this post replying “10 more to go.” But him deleting the comment intensified the rift rumors.

As per reports, it is said that Jadeja is ‘not in touch’ with the Chennai Super Kings franchise and its management, and he is reportedly planning to shift to a new franchise for the next season by registering himself as one of the players in the trade window. While the franchise and skipper Dhoni would try to resolve this issue as much as possible, the CSK fans would pray for the all-rounder to stay back and not leave the franchise.