Page 48 - The Indian EYE 052022

SPORTS MAY 20, 2022 | The Indian Eye 48

IPL 2022

Virat feels helpless, Jadeja leaves CSK

camp but the younger lot are upbeat

As the season gets into full flow, we bring to you all the action on and off the field

OUR BUREAU said an official statement from CSK.
Recently, the all-rounder had relin-
Mumbai
quished the captaincy of the side to
he poster boy of Indian crick- focus on his own game and had re-
et Virat Kohli, who is going quested MS Dhoni to lead the side
Tthrough an unprecedented again, who accepted his offer.
lean patch, said during a chat on Jadeja has not had a great season
Wednesday that he felt “absolutely so far, scoring only 116 in 10 games
helpless” after his second first-ball at an average of 19.33 with the best
duck in the ongoing IPL. Kohli has score of 26*. With the ball, he has
only 216 runs in 12 innings for Royal managed only five wickets so far.
Challengers Bangalore. During the The all-rounder, who has been
current IPL season, he has managed an integral part of Chennai Super
to score a half-century once. Kohli Kings for almost 10 years, was un-
has got three ducks so far this sea- followed by the franchise on their
son, two of which have been golden Instagram handle. The all-rounder’s
ducks. He said in a video uploaded sudden departure and being unfol-
by Royal Challengers Bangalore, that lowed sparked rumours of a rift with
how much he misses his best friend the franchise.
and former RCB teammate AB de This has led to speculations on
Villiers. social media that Jadeja left the sea-
The host of the show jokingly son abruptly because of some issues
asked Virat about his love for an- with the team.
imals and ‘ducks’, to which Kohli “CSK management & Dhoni
replied, “First-ball ducks. After the played cheap politics with #Jade-
second one, I actually realised what ja first Dhoni made him scapegoat
it feels like to be like you, absolute- captain to blamed for worst season,
ly helpless. It hasn’t happened to me then sacked him from captain in just
ever in my career, I think. I have seen Rajasthan Royals Prasidh Krishna celebrates the dismissal of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s 8 matches, then Dhoni criticised his
everything now. It’s been so long; I captain Virat Kohli (ANI Photo) captaincy, then #CSK unfollowed
have seen everything in this game.” him & now sacked from IPL BEST
Speaking about his loyalty to PLAYER but insulted,” wrote a user
RCB, Virat said, “The perks of loy- cause he was the captain of South games. To finish the league stage on Twitter.
alty are way more than the perks of Africa for a while. Faf is a guy who is among the top four teams, they must Tilak Varma feels he is ‘very
captaincy.” very sure of himself, and he has full win at least one of their remaining lucky’ to play for MI
Virat Kohli also went on to say authority on the field. Sometimes I two games. Mumbai Indians’ emerging tal-
how much he misses his best friend mention things and tells me ‘No, I JADEJA RULED OUT, ent Tilak Varma has impressed many
and former RCB teammate AB de don’t want to do that’, which I respect with his performance in the ongoing
Villiers, “I miss him a lot. I speak a lot because that obviously makes UNFOLLOWED BY CSK ON Indian Premier League 2022. Tilak
to him regularly, quite regularly. He you gain respect for the person you SOCIAL MEDIA has smashed 334 runs in 11 innings
keeps messaging me - he was in the are playing under.” for MI this season with an average of
US recently watching Golf - Augusta “As I said, we have had mutual tar Chennai Super Kings 37.11 and with a decent strike rate of
Masters is what I heard it was called. respect for many years even before all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has 136.32. During an interview in the MI
So, he told me he was there experi- he played for RCB because he was Sbeen ruled out of the rest of the TV show, Tilak Varma spoke about
encing it with his friends and family. captain of South Africa, and always season of the Indian Premier League his cricketing journey and the excite-
We stay in touch - he is very keenly had some nice conversations - pre- (IPL) due to a bruised rib. ment during the IPL auction.
obviously watching RCB and hope- match, post-match. Yeah, there was “Ravindra Jadeja reported a Tilak Varma said: “From the 1st
fully here next year in some capaci- always respect there but now I have bruised rib and was unavailable for day of auction I got myself glued to
ty.” gotten to know him much better and Chennai Super Kings’ game against the TV as I was eagerly waiting for
Commenting on Faf Du Plessis, he’s a brilliant guy and yes obviously Delhi Capitals on Sunday. He was my name to flash on the screen and
Virat said, “I and Faf have always a very good-looking guy,” he added. under observation and based on later when I saw me getting selected
gotten along really well even before RCB are currently ranked 4th medical advice he has been ruled for MI team it was a moment of a
we played together this season be- in the points table with 7 wins in 12 out for the rest of the IPL season,” Continued at next page... >>

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