It was always going to be tough for Chennai Super Kings when its home matches were shifted from Chennai and on Saturday after its eight-wicket defeat to Mumbai Indians, coach Stephen Fleming admitted the team has to work extra hard to get the home advantage here.
Fleming said, “The biggest thing is getting to know the pitch. We picked a side for the Chennai wicket. So we are learning as much as anyone and we have learned a little bit again. Now we have got only a day to make sure we try and get our right combination right for Delhi (Daredevils) match.”
On Saturday, CSK faltered from 91 for one after 10 overs to manage only 169 and Fleming felt the wicket was bit tricky.
Read: CSK has to ‘work extra hard’ for home advantage, admits Fleming
“There’s very little grass out in Chennai than over here. We are learning how to use the wind and make sure that we can read it better when there is bit more grass and how it is going to play,” explained the former New Zealand skipper.
While Fleming likes to reiterate his mantra of maintaining a consistency in selection, the team faces huge dilemma especially after Deepak Chahar was ruled out for a few weeks with a hamstring injury on Saturday.
An option could be to get in English all-rounder David Willey, who can be handy with the bat in addition to his left-arm pace while Karn Sharma could replace Imran Tahir to strike the balance. One good news though was the arrival of Lungi Ngidi who joined the squad on Saturday after he flew back to South Africa following his father’s demise.
On Sunday, the CSK pacers Willey, Ngidi, Mark Wood and Monu Kumar Singh had a good session with bowling consultant Eric Simmons keeping a watchful eye on them.
Despite poor starts for both MI and DD, Fleming highlighted that teams down the bottom of the table are more dangerous since they are desperate and CSK would want to correct its slip up immediately on Monday.
Also read: Bravo is mentor to all young bowlers in CSK, says Simmons
Delhi, still last in the table, comes into the match on the back of a 55-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders. It came at the right time especially after the off-field drama where skipper Gautam Gambhir relinquished his captaincy and was dropped from the last game on the back of poor form.
New skipper Shreyas Iyer led from the front in that match with a 40-ball 93 and on Sunday despite being an optional practice session, almost the full team was hard at training and would like to do what Mumbai did to CSK on Monday and try to salvage its season.
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