Former Australian cricketer Tom Moody feels that when skipper MS Dhoni announces his retirement, the Chennai Super Kings would experience significant adjustments.
He said that MS Dhoni is likely to be a part of the CSK team management but there can be a change in how decisions are taken on the ground. The experienced coach emphasized how different Chennai looked in the previous edition under Ravindra Jadeja.
Moody explained:
“It will change dramatically on the field, for sure. He will still have a presence because I’m sure he will still be there in some mentor role or coaching role. We saw last year when Jadeja took over the leadership, suddenly it didn’t have the same feel about the team.”
“The impact of leadership is significant in the IPL and we have seen historically that the very well-led teams are more often than not in top four.”
Tom Moody on CSK post MS Dhoni’s retirement
Sanjay Manjrekar on CSK without MS Dhoni
Sanjay Manjrekar stated in the video that even with a new captain, the Chennai-based team is unlikely to adopt a chopping and changing policy.
“The culture is set now. So, you’ll have a new captain, and you might see him making slightly different calls on the field, but I don’t see with the new captain, CSK suddenly getting into chopping and changing.”
Jadeja was chosen as CSK’s new captain before the commencement of IPL last year. However, after only eight matches, the all rounder abandoned the post, and MS Dhoni was back in charge.
Tom Moody on Piyush Chawla and Ajinkya Rahane
Tom Moody went on to say that players like Piyush Chawla and Ajinkya Rahane have excelled due to the environments that they have had at Mumbai and Chennai, respectively.
He stated that both teams believe in supporting their players and even allowing them to fail. Such an approach brings out the best in individuals.
“It is easier for someone like Piyush Chawla or Ajinkya Rahane to succeed in a franchise like MI or CSK because they feel like their skill is backed and they are trusted and given the opportunity to fail. Everyone fails, and it’s the case of making sure that person still feels that they belong and they are trusted in what they are doing.”
This season, both Chawla and Rahane have excelled for their respective clubs. Chawla is MI’s leading wicket-taker in IPL 2023, with 20 wickets from 14 games. Rahane, on the other side, has scored 282 runs in nine innings with a strike rate of 169.87.