'Ravindra Jadeja looked a bit nervous' - Mohammad Kaif on all-rounder's captaincy debut against KKR

The former Indian batter and commentator, Mohammad Kaif, has shared his thoughts on the new Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain, Ravindra Jadeja after the latter’s first outing in the leadership role. Kaif felt that Jadeja was not up to the mark with his confidence, and was a bit nervous on his captaincy debut in the IPL 2022 opener against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

Prior to being appointed as CSK captain in the 2022 season, the all-rounder did not even have any experience of leading his domestic side or any IPL team. He was retained for INR 16 crores by Chennai Super Kings ahead of the mega auction.

Maybe there was a bit of pressure of captaincy on Ravindra Jadeja: Mohammad Kaif

The defending champions, Chennai Super Kings, suffered a loss in their first fixture against the Kolkata Knight Riders, where they failed to defend 131 runs. On the Sports Talk show hosted by Sportskeeda, Kaif said, “Jadeja is an in-form batter, who has been consistently doing well for India and got a chance to captain (CSK). Jadeja looked a bit nervous. Maybe there was a bit of pressure of captaincy on him. He couldn’t bat freely, he came into bowl late. He seemed a bit conservative. But, it was his first match, he will learn.”

The captain struggled on his way to an unbeaten 26 off 28 balls and could not accelerate in the final overs. His only big shot came off the final ball of the innings, which should have come earlier to help the team in posting a strong total on the board. With the ball, he did put brakes on the opposition by giving away 25 runs off four overs, but could not affect a dismissal.

Kaif spoke about the decision by Ravindra Jadeja to give the new ball to youngster Tushar Deshpande, who filled the boots of Deepak Chahar who is still recovering from his injury. He also added that CSK could not manage to score enough on a venue like Wankhede.

“Jadeja erred in giving Deepak Chahar’s role to pacer Tushar Desphande. That was a mistake. Also, their main players didn’t score runs. (Robin) Uthappa looked good but got stumped. 131 is all they managed. Wankhede is a high-scoring venue, so I was surprised that they scored only so much. The pitch was a bit tacky and the ball was stopping a bit,” Kaif added.