3 min readChennaiUpdated: Apr 4, 2026 08:10 AM IST
On a day where Chennai Super Kings ended up losing after putting on 209/5 on board, their head coach Stephen Fleming has said that they could have been better defensively with the ball. Defending a big total, CSK were straightaway put under pressure by Priyansh Arya, who scored 39 off 11 deliveries before Shreyas Iyer’s 50 off 29 deliveries gave Punjab Kings their fourth win on the trot at Chepauk in the last four seasons.
For Chennai, this was a defeat that showed them the mirror. Having let go of Matheesha Pathirana and Nathan Ellis ruled out of injury, Chennai’s attack is devoid of any bowlers who could make an impact. At the mini-auctions, where they went with the second-highest purse, they spent Rs 14.2 crore each on two young uncapped Indian players, Kartik Sharma and Prashant Veer. Despite the likes of Lungi Ngidi, Gerald Coetzee, Ottneil Baartman, Jacob Duffy, Alzarri Joseph, and Ben Dwarshuis available to pick from, they didn’t spend big on strengthening the attack. Their hesitance to go for Ngidi, a pacer who has been part of the set-up and has worked with their bowling consultant Eric Simmons, came as a surprise. That Ngidi has evolved into a reliable T20 bowler has only rubbed salt into their wounds.
When asked about the reasons, Fleming didn’t reveal much. “I’m trying to think back to the auction process around all those names that you talked about were mentioned. I don’t, I can’t remember the dynamics. There was a large list of bowlers that we looked at and missed out on that might have been out of form at the time but are in form now. Trust me, we went over everything. I can’t remember those dynamics,” Fleming said.
Post last season, CSK went for a complete revamp of the squad and the batting group has had a total makeover. However, there are still some concerns with the most of the batsmen being top-order batsmen, which means they are short on options in the middle and lower-order and especially for the finisher’s role.
But Fleming believed there is no room for finisher’s in T20 anymore. “Look, I don’t think there is a thing called finishers anymore. It’s right from ball one, everyone is going at a rate of knocks. It’s not ‘build up to the 16th over and then go harder’. Everyone’s going hard from ball one. So the run rates of 10, 11, 12 all the way through are what’s expected and you’re not really getting the big peaks towards the end.
“It’s just a more aggressive approach to get 240. So you actually have to have players all the way through that are going to be aggressive and that’s certainly the team that we’ve got. Keep in mind we’ve got (Dewald) Brevis on the sideline and you’ve got one of the best finishers in the MS (Dhoni) and there’s some power there but Brevis is in the middle. I’m really content with the pace that we can go,” Fleming said.
