Ravindra Jadeja got a unique captaincy record to his name in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season opener against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Jadeja has played most number of matches in IPL before becoming a captain.
The Saurashtra all-rounder broke Manish Pandey's record. Pandey, who will play for new franchise Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) this year, captained Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) after making 153 IPL appearances. The list's top five also includes Kieron Pollard (137, Mumbai Indians), Ravichandran Ashwin (111, Kings XI Punjab), Sanju Samson (107, Rajasthan Royals).
On his captaincy debut, Jadeja lost the toss. He handed the IPL debut cap to New Zealand left-handed batter Devon Conway.
“Big shoes to fill in. Happy and excited for the new role. We are going with four foreign players,” Jadeja said at the coin toss.
Jadeja made his IPL debut in the inaugural season for Rajasthan Royals (RR) who went on to become champion. Jadeja was given ‘Rockstar’ nickname by former Australian cricketer Shane Warne.
The news of Mahendra Singh Dhoni handing over the captaincy to Jadeja was announced by the Chennai-based franchise just few days before their clash against Shreyas Iyer’s KKR. Earlier, the 33-year-old was retained for Rs 15 crore by CSK whereas Dhoni took a pay cut (Rs 12 crore).
The last time Dhoni didn’t play as a captain was for now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS). Dhoni has led CSK to victory in 130 games out of 213. The former Indian captain led CSK to the IPL title four times.
CSK Playing XI: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja (c), Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni (wk), Dwayne Bravo, Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Tushar Deshpande
