Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra said that all is not well in the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) camp in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. His comments came on the recent controversy over Ravindra Jadeja and Ambati Rayudu. The news also came that Jadeja left the Chennai bio-bubble a few days back due to an alleged rift between him and the team management over the captaincy issue.
Meanwhile, the official franchise release said that Jadeja had suffered a rib injury. On Saturday, Rayudu left everyone shocked when he put out a tweet announcing his IPL retirement. However, he later deleted the tweet too as well. While speaking ahead of the game, Chopra said on his YouTube channel that they seem to be suffering from both on and off-field issues.
He said: “Chennai have their own story. Ravindra Jadeja left (the bio-bubble), then Ambati Rayudu announced retirement before unretiring. There is a different game that’s happening there with Ambati Rayudu. All doesn’t seem to be well in that camp.”
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However, announcing his IPL retirement on Saturday, Rayudu had tweeted, “I am happy to announce that this will be my last ipl. I have had a wonderful time playing it and being a part of 2 great teams for 13 years. Would love to sincerely thank Mumbai Indians and Csk for the wonderful journey…”
Franchise CEO Kasi Viswanathan, later spoke to him about this too. Speaking to Sportstar, Viswanathan explained: “I spoke to him, and he is not retiring. He was disappointed with his performance, and that’s why he might have put out that tweet. But he has deleted it, and he is definitely not retiring. Everything is fine; we have had a word, and he will be with us.”
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Ambati Rayudu has had a poor IPL 2022 campaign. In 12 games, he has scored only 271 runs which came at an average of 27.10 and a strike rate of 124.31 as well. He has scored only one fifty – 78 runs off 39 balls against the Punjab Kings.
“Chennai can say that they got one bad decision in the last match because DRS was not there. It was bad; it started a domino effect, but I thought they played poor cricket. They will be playing for pride now. This is a strong and successful franchise. They would want to sign off on a high,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
