IPL 2022: Was Dhoni's captaincy bombshell a sudden decision? CSK head coach Fleming reveals

Legendary cricketer MS Dhoni shocked Chennai Super Kings (CSK) fans on Thursday after deciding to step down from the captaincy role and hand over the baton to all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. Even as the Chennai-based franchise kickstarted a new era in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with a loss against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Saturday, several supporters remain clueless as to why the CSK icon chose to step down just two days before the start of showpiece T20 tournament.

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Opening up about Dhoni's decision to resign as captain, CSK head coach Stephen Fleming revealed that the former skipper wanted to hand over a clean captaincy slate to Jadeja. The former New Zealand captain stated that Dhoni's captaincy decision was not sudden and was 'talked about' during the last season.

"We have talked about it. It is something MS talked about with me during last season. The timing was though his call," Fleming said at the virtual post-match press conference after the IPL 2022 opener at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

"We 100% respect that. It is going to be a bit of a transition period as we develop a relationship with Jadeja and also have MS there. You just don't discard a player just because he doesn't have the captaincy tag," Fleming added. 

"Develop a new captain, and you work with the experience you have got, and thankfully we have got quite a bit of that. This is a bit of a change, but we will work through that," the CSK head coach concluded.

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Dhoni guided Chennai Super Kings to four IPL titles in his iconic captaincy stint from 2008 to 2021. Under the leadership of Thala Dhoni, the Yellow Army finished runners-up on five occasions in the T20 league. On Saturday, Dhoni's quick-fire half-century in the defending champions' IPL 2022 opener went in vain as Shreyas Iyer's KKR defeated CSK by six wickets.