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The cynosure of Friday’s IPL 2024 season opener at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai was Ruturaj Gaikwad’s captaincy and how the defending champions Chennai Super Kings will perform under the new captain. It was only on Thursday when MS Dhoni stepped down from the role of leading the side for the second time in his CSK career to promote the youngster. While it was expected that Gaikwad would sometimes seek help from the legendary captain at times of trouble, a video during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s innings at Chepauk left many wondering who the real on-field skipper was.
Gaikwad was fairly impressive on his captaincy debut, especially with his bowling choices after RCB got off to a blistering start with Faf du Plessis leading the way. A fiery 41-run stand after RCB opted to bat first left Chennai in disarray. But the hosts bounced back in quick time, with Mustafizur Rahman picking two wickets in the penultimate over of the powerplay before Deepak Chahar picked up another in the next over to reduce RCB to just three down for 42 runs.
During the strategic time-out, at the end of the ninth over, Gaikwad was seen having a lengthy chat with Dhoni, probably seeking some advice on how to approach the next half of the innings.
RCB, however, bounced back, riding on a sixth-wicket stand of 95 runs between Anuj Rawat and Dinesh Karthik as they set a 174-run target. After the end of the first innings, a video on social media sparked a debate on whether Gaikwad was just an on-paper captain as Dhoni was seen actively setting the field during RCB’s batting.
Former India cricketer and CSK player Subramaniam Badrinath reckoned the same as well as he took to social media to write: “I think MS Dhoni is still the fielding captain”
Have players adjusted to the not looking at MS Dhoni when fielding?
Shivam Dube, who scored a crucial 28-ball 34, lacing a maximum and four boundaries to help CSK wrap up the chase with eight balls to spare, was asked after the match by the broadcasters whether Chennai players have adjusted in looking at Gaikwad for fielding changes instead of Dhoni and the all-rounder hesitantly smiled.
He said: “Since Dhoni is the wicketkeeper, his angles in judging the field is better and so we will obviously still look at him for opinions.”
When pressed further by Suresh Raina on who between Gaikwad and Dhoni spoke to during the team hurdle at the start of the match, Dube picked the incumbent captain.
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