India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja deleted all photos related to Indian Premier League franchise Chennai Super Kings from his Instagram handle on Friday, intensifying rumours of a rift between him and the franchise. Fans took to social media to react to the same, with some also noticing that the 33-year-old did not wish Mahendra Singh Dhoni on his birthday this year. 

Ahead of the start of the 15th season of the IPL, Dhoni stepped down as CSK skipper and handed over the reins to Jadeja, who “relinquished” the captaincy and handed it back to Dhoni mid-season after the side lost six out of its first 8 matches.  

“Ravindra Jadeja has decided to relinquish captaincy to focus and concentrate more on his game & has requested MS Dhoni to lead CSK. MS Dhoni has accepted to lead CSK in the larger interest & to allow Jadeja to focus on his game,” CSK had said in a statement at the time.

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Following this, multiple sources told multiple publications that Jadeja was not happy with the manner in which he was removed from the captaincy. However, neither the player nor the franchise confirmed or denied the report. 

A couple of days later, CSK announced that Jadeja has been ruled out of the remainder of the IPL season due to a rib injury.

“Ravindra Jadeja won’t be playing CSK’s next two games as he has suffered a rib cage injury. He has already gone home,” CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan told PTI.

The franchise and the player then reportedly unfollowed each other on Instagram, giving rise to speculations of a rift. 

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Jadeja scored his maiden overseas century in the recently concluded Test between India and England. When asked about the IPL controversy following his performance in the Test, he said that IPL was not on his mind during the Test.

“What happened, happened. IPL was not on my mind. Whenever you are playing for India, your entire focus needs to be on the Indian team. It was the same for me, there is no better satisfaction than performing well for India. I can really take some confidence in myself as a player from this, to score a 100 in England, especially in swinging conditions, so yeah it feels really good,” Jadeja had said.