CHENNAI: Having lost the first three games, Chennai Super Kings will have to regroup and play to their potential in order to end their search for a win when they take on Delhi Capitals at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday.
The hosts will bank on CSKs' opening pair of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sanju Samson to give a good start. Samson, who is now the poster boy of the CSK, has failed in the last three games. But the way he was batting in training sessions, an attacking innings from him on Saturday could revive a side which is short of inspiration so far. 'The teams with the top three are performing well and going well. Both Ruturaj and Sanju Samson are training incredibly well. Most of the boys are good. It's now just transferring that into performance and not getting too eager to get across the line and find the rhythms to come with winning. They're doing all the right things in training," said Stephen Fleming, head coach of CSK . Former bowling coach of CSK L Balaji too insisted that the top three must fire. "Ruturaj, Sanju and Mhatre are all good players and know what to do in the powerplay. Even if two of them give a good start and one stays till the end, CSK have a good chance at a big total. Both Sarfaraz Khan and Shivam Dube will have a role to play in the revival of the team,'' insisted Balaji.
CSK has in the past had a large pool of experienced players but now with a lot of youngsters in their ranks, not just the players, the coaching staff are also adapting. "I just want a little bit more patience. What I do love is the skill level. It's incredible as these guys expand their abilities and the lack of fear of consequence but unfortunately there is consequence in cricket, in particular batting. It's trying to teach them a little bit of game awareness without flattening their desire to hit every ball for six. The game we've talked about has changed but there are still coaching elements around the game that need to be respected. The battle as we go forward is what is the balance between being too reckless and then being sensible and you're seeing examples of both in this competition," said Fleming
"There's so much talent around and they're just starting to realise how good they can be. The other thing that's interesting is that as you go on, the amount of players that have played four day cricket. When we first started IPL, it was pretty much players that played Test cricket, four-day cricket, one-day cricket who were then transferring and learning T20. We have got players who have become more specialised in the white-ball and their skills have taken the game forward. Now, you have got a group that have basically brought up on T20 but where there's a bit of a hole is the amount of time in the middle, batting, learning the game and the trade for a long period of time. Whether there's some old skills that can still be transferred into the game going forward, there's no doubt what these guys can do," added the former New Zealand captain.
Meanwhile, Delhi will be looking to recover from the heartbreak against Gujarat Titans. T Natarajan, who will be playing at his home ground, is confident of the same. For Natarajan, this season has also been special having come back from a collarbone injury. "For the past year, daily management has been great. Hemang Badani sir talks to me a lot. I attended a lot of camps in Delhi, Surat, Hyderabad. In Dubai, I spent a lot of time in the training camp. I was there for three weeks. It was great. I practiced a lot and played a lot of matches. I played in Dubai for the first time. It was a good experience. I got a lot of rhythm from that. The coaches, the support staff, they handled me well," said Natarajan, insisting that his confidence level is high.
Will it come to the fore against a wounded Super Kings on Saturday? Time will tell.
