IPL 2019: Stephen Fleming Puts Weight Behind Kedar Jadhav

Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming has put his weight behind under-fire Kedar Jadhav. The right-hander hasn’t been in the best of form in the ongoing Indian Premier League 2019. The Maharashtra batsman has scored only 162 runs in the season in 11 matches. In fact, Jadhav has got opportunities to bat in the lower order. Hence, when he has come to bat in the lower order as he hasn’t got to face a lot of deliveries.

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On the other hand, Kedar Jadhav hasn’t been utilised with the ball by Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni. Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings is at the numero uno position in the points table as they have won nine matches out of the 13 they have played thus far. The reigning champions will play their last league match against Kings XI Punjab and they will like to hold on to their pole position.

Jadhav hasn’t had the best of the IPL.

“The IPL is not over yet. Every player is excited about what he can do and Kedar Jadhav is certainly one of them. He plays a difficult role in middle-order for the team. Sometimes, there is a lot of opportunities and sometimes little opportunity. And that makes the role diverse. I am not worried about him, he is very relaxed, he does have one eye on the World Cup as all the Indian players do in our side. But for right now he is, form-wise, firmly fixed on contributing to how many games we have got left,” said Fleming said while talking in the pre-match press conference.

Workload management.

Meanwhile, Stephen Fleming also spoke about managing the workload of the players. Fleming is aware that the average age of their team is higher than the other teams. In fact, the head coach believes that sickness of MS Dhoni was a blessing in disguise for the team as the skipper was able to get some rest under his belt.

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“As a team, we look at the workload of all the players. We know we are a little bit older than the rest of the other teams. So we are always monitoring the player’s workload. To be honest, the positive out of MS being sick last week is that he was able to take some rest. That’s one of the challenges when you always want one of your best players to play. I think he came back pretty good and got his rhythm back. Another few days are important. His back felt great, (though) he was just a little bit weak from the flu that he had. At this stage of the tournament, all the players are suffering from fatigue and managing that is important for us,” said the former New Zealand captain.

Focus is on winning.

Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings can also give rest to its mainstream players in the last league match against Kings XI Punjab. However, the former Kiwi southpaw opener added that the focus is on winning.

“It depends what happens today. So try to see facts. If results (of the match between Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals) go our way today, then we can have a look at some options. But right now we are firmly fixed on winning tomorrow’s game and playing well. You don’t want to over-complicate things, we have been in this position a number of times. We are very focussed on how we can win tomorrow,” said Fleming.

Chennai Super Kings will take on Kings XI Punjab at Mohali today at 4 pm.