CSK will leave no stone unturned in trying out players for next year: Fleming

Chennai Super Kings strategize for IPL future, focusing on grooming youngsters and improving team dynamics for next season.

A solitary game into the latter half of the season and Chennai Super Kings has started planning for the next Indian Premier League edition. Head coach Stephen Fleming stated that the franchise will try and utilise the remaining matches to optimise its chances of grooming youngsters, should it formally bow out of the playoffs race.

“We are realistic about the position that we are in, but there will be no stone unturned looking for players for next year, combinations for next year and we will see it as an opportunity,” Fleming said after the team’s nine-wicket loss to Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday night.

“(It is) not a great opportunity because we want to be at the pointy end of the competition, but if it works out that there is no chance of us getting through (to the playoffs), we will certainly make the most of it.”

At a time when the batting line-up appears to be extremely shaky, CSK in its last two outings handed debuts to promising domestic batters Shaik Rasheed and Ayush Mhatre. Despite the two showing glimpses of their talent, Super Kings were stifled in the middle overs on Sunday.

Did Ravindra Jadeja and Shivam Dube bat too conservatively?

“We are not trying to play a conservative brand of cricket, we are just lacking a little bit of confidence and we are just changing personnel through one reason or another,” Fleming said.

“They (Jadeja and Dube) did feel that the ball was stopping which made it difficult, but we need to be more proactive all the way through. We are just trying to find a tempo that’s going to help us compete and at the moment, we might get it right in one area, but other areas are letting us down. We are plugging holes in one spot, but it’s still leaking in others and that can often be the case when you are just a little bit down on fortune.”