IPL 2018: 5 areas of concern that Chennai Superkings needs to overcome to win against Royal Challengers Bangalore

#3 The Jadeja conundrum

Jadeja has been poor with both bat and ball

Everyone knows that when Dhoni decides to back an underperforming player, even the Gods are compelled to reverse the player’s fortunes for good.

There have been numerous such stories in the past and why go back in the distant past when we have the story of Deepak Chahar who had two forgetful seasons with Rising Pune Supergiant but was on fire this season until a hamstring injury ruled him out of the action for a couple of weeks.

But somehow Jadeja’s fortunes are looking like a hard nut to crack even by the rock-solid backing of Dhoni.

He has been regularly promoted up the order over Bravo but has failed in every attempt as is evident by his meagre returns which stand at 59 runs from eight innings.

He is even finding it difficult to strike the ball cleanly as he scored a run-a-ball 12 against Kolkata when his team needed him to be at his swashbuckling best in the death overs.

His bowling too cuts a sorry picture as he has been able to scalp only three wickets from the eighteen overs bowled so far.

CSK have given him enough opportunities over Bravo in the batting order and it’s about time they give that responsibility to someone more potent than him while they can also consider bringing back Shardul Thakur in place of him to bolster their pace attack.