4 min readChennaiUpdated: May 3, 2026 08:42 AM IST
Facing criticism over the use of Impact Players this season, Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming has said they have been trying to push the boundaries in terms of the extra player. Since the Impact Player rule came into effect, CSK have more or less have had a settled template in the past where one of Ambati Rayudu or Shivam Dube came on Impact subs with the bat and in the bowling front one of Tushar Deshpande or Khaleel Ahmed being their preferred options.
However, this season there hasn’t been a pattern with the CSK using Sarfaraz Khan twice in the powerplay overs while batting first to make up for early loss of wickets. It has resulted in them compromising on bowling options.
“First thing, we have pushed the boundaries. The last game probably got a little bit of criticism for it. But we looked at areas where we could be exposed. It sounds a little bit negative, but it’s about planning potentially what could happen. We were very alarmed by the first few overs of the last game. So using the impact player in a positive way by getting a batter up early rather than waiting until 8 or 9 was different. But if he’s going to make an impact it’s going to be tough. I’d have to say probably around the bowling unit as we learn. We could have done better with that. Always learning and make mistakes again I’m sure. But we are trying to squeeze as much as we can out of this group and use that rule as we’re just still settling,” Fleming said.
On Saturday against Mumbai Indians, they left out Akeal Hosein much to the surprise of everyone. Despite making impactful performances in the matches he played, his omission on what Ruturaj Gaikwad called as dry surface, came as a surprise. Instead they chose to bring in Prashant Veer ahead of Hosein.
“Today we felt a little bit more comfortable with what the wicket was going to offer. We were able to then introduce Veer as well, which will probably get some headlines around Akeal. But given our understanding the wicket is going to have a bit more pace and bounce early. Spin wasn’t going to be as big a part as what potentially could be. So there’s a lot of things going into it. Some are getting right, some are over complicated. But it’s an effort to try and push the boundary as much as we can,” he said.
During the win on Saturday, CSK also got to witness the best side of Ruturaj Gaikwad, who scored a second consecutive unbeaten fifty. In contrast to his innings against Gujarat Titans, he found the rhythm against Mumbai as he anchored the chase successfully.
“He’s getting better each game. It was a bit of a slow start as we were trying to form the bowling patterns and the different grounds as we played I think away for the first couple of games. But the last few games he’s been excellent. One of the key things that helps your captaincy is batting well and he’s found a bit of form in the last two games and that’s I think coincided with some good decision making. So managing those two and being positive about both ones not working well is really important. So he was under a lot of pressure, more so with the bat but also it flows into questioning some of the captaincy. I think he’s answered that pretty well,” Fleming said.
