After a few back to back games, Chennai Super Kings enjoyed a couple of days off before their next game, against Mumbai Indians at home.
Coach Stephen Fleming said the break had helped the team recover from the hectic schedule and has prepared them to face their traditional rivals on Friday.

On the eve of the game, Fleming mostly spoke about CSK’s batting combination and expressed pleasure with how Suresh Raina is shaping into the role of the number 3 batsman for them.

Amid an indifferent tournament according to his standards, Raina scored a sedate 52 in the last game, against RCB to bag the man of the match award.

Fleming spoke about the challenge and handling this difficult situation where you try to mould your aggressive batsman into a sheet anchor.
“Suresh was excellent in the last game. In the past he has been guilty of being too aggressive and we do need substance from him,” Fleming said. “On the other hand we don’t want to curb his natural instincts which has served us well for seven years. So, it is a tough message to give to a player who is aggressive by nature, to tone it down and not get out, but still create a run-rate.

“His innings of substance in the last game was really smart – it was a mixture of both, which was pleasing from the coaching and the team point of view. It is still a work in progress because it is always difficult to manage, but Suresh is making a lot of gains in that department.”

Fleming emphasised on the importance of Raina’s role one down in the context of their opening pair of Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith. The CSK coach said that although the destructive openers have given the team more flashes of brilliance than sustained illumination, he would not want to tinker with their approach to batting. Instead, he would like Raina and Faf du Plessis to build their innings on the basis of the start given by the openers.

“It is much the case like it is with Suresh – you don’t want to curb an aggressive batsman’s instincts too much. You need to take the bad with the good,” Fleming said. “What is important here is that guys like Suresh and Faf du Plessis build their innings accordingly – if the openers get us a big start, these two have the license to go freely and in case of an early wicket they have to play an innings of substance.

“Considering how they play, McCullum and Smith have been good for us. Yes, we’d like the 20s to be converted into the 50s and 60s because they win you games. But if they don’t fire, we have other players who can win us games,” he said.

Among the few areas of concerns for CSK is the abysmal form of Ravindra Jadeja with both bat and ball. In 10 matches so far in Pepsi IPL 2015, Jadeja has scored 99 runs and picked up five wickets at an economy rate of 8.37. In the team as an all-rounder who is expected to finish games well with the bat and give four economical overs to the captain, Jadeja has fallen way far behind the expectations.

Fleming agreed that the all-rounder needs to pull his socks up but also refuted any suggestion of dropping him from the playing XI.

“We want more from him but his skill-set is such that we value what he can contribute,” he said of Jadeja. “I don’t believe that chopping and changing in the IPL gives you an advantage. In fact, it can be destructive. We try and give the players as long as we can to make their contributions. Yes, he hasn’t had an impact in this tournament as previous years but that is not to say that he would not finish the tournament well. It is up to the coaching staff and Jadeja himself to put the work in and just get back that 10 per cent he is missing.

“He has been good in the field but we would want to get more out of him with the ball and have his hitting power back. The fact that Pawan Negi has come into the team can be seen as competition for him and also depth for us, and that is healthy. But at this time we will be working closely with the players rather than looking to chop and change.”

With Jadeja out of form, another concern looming for CSK is the R Ashwin’s finger injury. The off-spinner cut his finger while fielding in the home game against KKR and missed the next two games. On the Chepauk wicket, Ashwin has always been MS Dhoni’s trump card and the team would want him back at the earliest.