The left-arm spinner was seen having a lengthy chat with the franchise chief executive following a horrible outing with the ball in Delhi during IPL 2023.
Ravindra Jadeja may have proved to be a real match-winner for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL 2023 final against the Gujarat Titans (GT), but the campaign wasn’t all hunky-dory for the spin allrounder, who underwent criticism from certain corners for his bowling and also faced the wrath of social media.
Jadeja was at the receiving end of excessive trolling and funny memes made on his off outings, particularly the one he endured against the Delhi Capitals (DC). In an away game played at the fag end of the league stage, the left-arm spinner was belted throughout his four overs for a whopping 50 runs.
Soon after, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan was seen having an elongated chat with the player, the picture of which went viral all over Twitter, with fans giving it their own preferred captions and soaking in fun at the expense of the cricketer’s misery. That episode also came in the backdrop of Jadeja’s infamous ‘Karma’ tweet and the suggestion that even as sponsors cherish him, the CSK fans don’t as much.
The cricketer wasn’t pleased with shouts of ‘We want Dhoni’ each time he walked out to bat. While the CSK captain was willing to let the more in-form powerhitter take the centre stage, Jadeja was left dismayed by the lack of crowd support for his promotion up the batting order.
Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, however, Viswanathan finally revealed the details of the viral picture he was featuring in with Ravindra Jadeja, seemingly offering him consoling words after a horrible outing in Delhi.
Viswanathan said it wasn’t the case of him pacifying the cricketer, who was touted as CSK’s next captain, but only an informal chat following the game.
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“It’s all part and parcel of the game. After the last game, people saw videos online and assumed I’m pacifying Jadeja, but it wasn’t like that. I was talking to him about the match, what he did. We didn’t have any other discussion,” Viswanathan said.
The chief executive also insisted there is no sense of rift brewing between Jadeja and MS Dhoni, the speculations around which have been rife ever since the former was asked to replace the latter as captain at the start of IPL 2022, before Dhoni and the franchise took a U-turn.
“Everyone knows in a team environment, what happens in the dressing room, no one is privy to it outside. We don’t have any problem. He always had high respect for Dhoni. After the final also, he said, ‘I dedicate this knock to Dhoni.’ That is the kind of respect he has for MS,” he added.
