Starting slow at the beginning is not an altogether alien way for M.S. Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings. It is known to comeback strongly from a string of poor results and make it to the play offs— such is the multiple times IPL winning champion team's street credo.
However, the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League has given reasons to the legion of CSK fans reasons to worry. Losses aside—it has lost two of its three matches so far against Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals—it's the manner in which the team has lost both these matches which is causing alarm bells to be pressed. The CSK started on a winning note though, beating Mumbai Indians in its first outing.
In both the matches that the CSK lost, skipper M.S. Dhoni won toss and chose to field first. And while it has faced a huge setback due to injury of Ambati Rayudu,the manner in which the run chases were structured and executed has surprised even the die-hard CSK fans.
So what is wrong with CSK, which looks like a pale shadow of the champion team that it is? After the first loss, Dhoni, who came at number seven and managed to do little to recreate the magic of his finishing innings, said the lack of cricket preceding IPL at home had resulted in difficulty in fluent run scoring.
Against the RR, it became ostensibly about protecting their net run rate after falling way behind while chasing 217 to win at Sharjah; it surely couldn't have been about protecting the NRR against the DC on Friday night at Dubai International Cricket Stadium—they never looked in the race to overhaul the total.
Both times, the body language and the intent raised questions. It was not just the batting which didn't look like ready to take up the challenge, the bowling, too, has looked under-cooked. Little surprise then that in the face of a top-class bowling of the DC, consisting of the likes of Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Azar Patel, Amit Mishra barring Faf du Plessis, the CSK batting struggled to score freely.
According to coach Stephen Fleming, CSK is in a muddle right now, struggling to find the right balance in the team post the absence of key players like Rayudu (hamstring injury) and Suresh Raina (leave of absence). "We're looking to develop a personality based on the wickets that we're facing. Each wicket has been completely different, and our batting line-up is, without Rayudu, Raina etc, we're trying to find a way or a combination and how to use players, and give players opportunities early on, so we know what we've got as the tournament goes on."
Most importantly, he minced no words in admitting that the team is lacking intent. "We've learned a massive amount over three days. Today's performance was on the weak side in terms of intent, but they (the Capitals) also bowled very well,"said Fleming.
Momentum is often key in the shortest format and Fleming believes the team has been unable to get going on that front. "It's been interesting six days and now we have time to look at few issues and rectify. We are really searching to get the combination right. At the moment we're really searching, both as players and as management, to get the combination right. We're too batter-heavy if we play the extra batter and too bowler-heavy if we play the extra bowler. We're struggling a little bit to find our momentum but that will come with a bit of time off and experience from these three games."
