Chennai Super Kings Have Used the Six-day Break Well, Says Coach Stephen Fleming

Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming on Thursday said the team used the six-day break to “get some clarity around” on what it needed to do to get its IPL campaign back on track.

The three-time champions have not gotten off the best of starts, having lost two of their first three games.

The Good News

“It came at a good time because the first three games were in quick succession and all games were at different grounds, so you have to appreciate trying to read conditions, for each game being predominantly the first team to play there was tough.

And also coming off a couple of challenges we had off the field, we’ve used this break pretty well, we got some clarity around what we need to do and have practised very well,” Fleming told the CSK website ahead of Friday’s match against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

In some good news on the eve of the SRH game, he said batsman Ambati Rayudu and all-rounder Dwayne Bravo are available for selection.

While Rayudu who starred in CSK’s win over Mumbai Indians in the tournament opener missed the next two matches due to a hamstring injury, the veteran West Indian player has not featured in any of the fixtures so far due to injury.

Better Performance Expectations

Asked how it would help to be playing four of the next five games at a single venue (Dubai), he said it would be helpful to settle in and try and read conditions at one ground.

“I’m looking forward to putting in a bit of performance than we did the last time we played at Dubai where we were outplayed by Delhi Capitals. There were a number of areas that we weren’t happy with, and we’ve worked hard on those,” he said.

To a question how much the teams would have learnt about conditions after playing three games each, he said from their point of view a lot has been learnt, adding it has been a tough start and “we’ve got to overcome that and restart well after this break.”

“I heard comments yesterday that teams are still learning, they’ve had the benefit of playing at one ground and are learning at other grounds, so I’m not sure.

“But from our point of view, we certainly learnt a lot, and even over the six days now, to watch and try and work the characteristics of each of the grounds has been beneficial,” he added.