Former Indian head coach, Ravi Shastri has opined that Chennai Super Kings (CSK) could’ve been in a different position if they would have retained Faf du Plessis in the squad. Shastri also added that handing the captaincy to du Plessis would have allowed Ravindra Jadeja to play more freely and that might have made a difference.

Chennai Super Kings had made a dismal start to the IPL 2022 losing all of the four matches they played so far. Ahead of the mega auction for this season, CSK had retained Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, and Ruturaj Gaikwad. The exclusion of Faf du Plessis from the retention was a surprise for many as he has plenty of experience with him and has scored 2722 runs from 86 innings at 35.4 for the franchise.

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During a chat with ESPNCricinfo, Ravi Shastri said, “I feel that someone like Jadeja, he should focus on his own game. If Chennai were to think back, they wouldn’t have let go of Faf du Plessis. He is a match-winner, he has won the IPL with Chennai, he has a lot of experience.” 

MS Dhoni has been the captain of the team till last season but he resigned two days before the start of the ongoing season. Ravindra Jadeja was handed the captaincy in spite of having only a little experience of the role. The team is yet to register their first win of the tournament and are going through a rough patch under Jadeja’s leadership. Ravi Shastri believes that du Plessis would have been a good leader and things might have been different under his captaincy.

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Elaborating the same, Ravi Shastri said, “If Dhoni was thinking of giving up the captaincy, then Faf should have been given the job, and Jadeja should have continued as [just] a player. He would have played freely, without the pressure of captaincy. Things could have been different for Chennai then.”