CHENNAI: As the season crosses the halfway-mark, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians – two of the storied franchises of the Indian Premier League (IPL) are struggling for consistency this season. On Saturday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, both sides will be keen to take a step towards consistency.
After their eight-wicket loss to Gujarat Titans here, Chennai remained at sixth position with six points. Meanwhile, Mumbai were defeated by Sunrisers Hyderabad at home on Wednesday (April 29) and languished at ninth in the points table.
One point of debate from the time the season began was the fitness of former captain MS Dhoni. He was ruled out for the first two weeks of the season due to a calf strain. However, that time has elapsed, but doubts still remain on his contention. CSK’s batting coach Michael Hussey provided an update on his fitness. "M S (Dhoni) is doing really well. Hopefully, he'll be back as soon as possible. I'm not sure if that will be tomorrow (Saturday) or the match after, but he's progressing well," Hussey said in the pre-match press conference on Friday.
Dhoni has travelled with the squad to Hyderabad and Mumbai, but is yet to make an appearance. The primary concern is his ability to sustain running intensity. "Dhoni has been working on his running speeds, which was probably the main concern. From a skill perspective, we're very confident in his batting and wicketkeeping. It was more about ensuring he can maintain good running power, especially towards the back end of an innings where quick singles and twos are crucial," explained Hussey.
"Once he feels confident in his calf, I'm sure he'll give the signal that he's ready to go. At the moment, we're guided by him. We're waiting. I think all of Chennai is waiting," he added.
For Mumbai, this match is another opportunity to turn things around, against their sworn rivals. Their head coach and former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene admitted that the team has been inconsistent. “For me to even analyse the first half of the season, quite a few games we've played good cricket but in patches. It's not good enough. The way some of the teams are playing - they're really consistent and pushing themselves. So if you're not competing at that same level, it's harder to win matches.” he said on the eve of the match.
Likewise, Jayawardene’s side also expect former captain and batter Rohit Sharma to return to fitness. “It's progressing well. He's working really hard to get back at it. So for us with the medical team, it's on a daily basis. We see how he feels, how he pulls up the next day. So we'll make a decision tomorrow (Saturday). We'll see him practicing on Friday as well. So let's see how he feels on Saturday and what the medical team will tell us,” he said.
He also called on his players to dominate each phase of the game. "It's not pointing fingers either on the batting group or the bowling group. It's just a combination of us not being able to play consistent cricket in each phase whether we're losing the power plays or a part of the middle overs or the back end with the ball and the bat. (This) is something where we are losing matches. So we need to collectively play better cricket and be consistent at that. We came close maybe one game but most of the other games we got outplayed," he added.
T20 World Cup winning captain Suryakumar Yadav and pace juggernaut Jasprit Bumrah have been a disappointment so far for Mumbai. Jayawardene is confident that they will bounce back.
“They are match winners and they are human. They will go through these things and the characters are such that they'll keep coming back and fighting. So the conversations we're having is not to have too much pressure on themselves because they feel that okay on their own they should be able to deliver. I know they're very honest to themselves about how they approach the game. They train hard. The work ethic is great,” he said.
For CSK, someone who can meet the demands of a top-order batter as well as a middle-order batter could be a solution to their batting woes. In the earlier years of the IPL, Subramaniam Badrinath was someone who played the role for CSK.
"We have tried to use someone like Sarfaraz (Khan) in that role and it's had some success, and maybe obviously in the last match it didn't really work out, but that can work. Sarfaraz is someone that we can use up the top, and then he's also very good down the bottom as well. I mean, Badri and I have played that role superbly, a long time ago and he was fantastic at coming in in those pressure situations,” Hussey explained.
The former Australian batter also said that Kartik Sharma also performs well in that role.
“Ideally speaking, we just hopefully bat well at the top. The top three do the job, and then we can really accelerate from the middle,” he said.
