It’s hard to imagine Chennai Super Kings (CSK) without MS Dhoni as captain and if anything, CSK’s convincing win over in-form Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 on Sunday was a reminder of why that is the case.

Only a couple of days before the IPL 2022 started, it was announced that Ravindra Jadeja would be taking over as captain of the Yellow Brigade from MS Dhoni for the season.

The announcement, undoubtedly, came as a shock to cricket lovers. Dhoni, after all, had led CSK to four IPL titles in 12 seasons as captain. However, the move was hardly a surprise one as Dhoni, 40, has already stepped away from international cricket and establishing a new era, under new leadership, seemed like the need of the hour for CSK.

It was also reported that Dhoni himself had chosen Jadeja, a long-time India and CSK colleague, as his successor to the throne.

The move, however, didn’t quite work out as expected as CSK, the defending champions, lost their first four matches of the season under Jadeja’s stewardship.

The losing streak was halted with a win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the fifth outing but the much-anticipated reversal of fortunes never came as the Men in Yellow slumped to two more defeats in their next three matches. Their only win came against Mumbai Indians, a team which has managed just a single win in nine matches this season.

With their backs to the wall and title defence in tatters, Jadeja opted to relinquish the captaincy to Dhoni to focus on his own performance.

“Once you become captain, it means a lot of demands come in. But it affected his mind as the tasks grew. I think captaincy burdened his prep and performances,” Dhoni said during a media interaction.

Dhoni’s return to the helm bore fruits almost immediately as the reinvigorated CSK team comfortably defeated a high-flying SRH team by 13 runs on Sunday.

The points took CSK’s tally to six points but the four-time champions still have a long way to go to make the knockout stages. With half of the season remaining, CSK will need to string together a dominating run in their final nine league matches to have any chance of making it to the playoffs.

But with Dhoni as captain now, it’ll be hard to write off CSK just yet. After all, MS Dhoni is known for his ability of turning things around, both as a captain and with the bat.