IPL 2020: Stephen Fleming Justifies The Reason Behind Promoting Sam Curran To The Opening Spot Against SRH

Chennai Super Kings all-rounder Sam Curran enjoyed an excellent time batting at the top against SunRisers Hyderabad. Sam Curran gave Chennai Super Kings the much-needed impetus in the early overs as they coasted to their third victory of IPL 2020. The three-time champions’ coach Stephen Fleming has explained the reason behind promoting Curran at the top.

Sam Curran clattered 31 off 21 deliveries with a flurry of boundaries against the SunRisers Hyderabad in Dubai on Tuesday as CSK gained an early momentum and got the returns of the fielding restrictions. Curran had displayed his hitting power earlier in the season as well and the decision to move the 22-year old up the order was a long time coming. With the ball, the left-arm seamer dismissed David Warner as Chennai won by 20 runs eventually.

Stephen Fleming revealed that they have Sam Curran padded up all the time and looking to get him to the pitch. Fleming underlined that it was an experimental move and the camp aimed to do something different since they were repeating the same mistakes, leading to their losses. Hence, they banked on Curran to get them some quick runs and early momentum.

“We have had Sam padded up every time, looking to inject him into the innings but wickets have fallen. Rather than getting clogged up with probably too much batting resource, we thought we would be certain about Sam, put him up in front and see how he goes. That was the main reason. It was born out of our need to do something different because the trends of our losses were getting too familiar. So we needed to get Sam in the game and provide a little bit of momentum at the front,” Fleming stated as quoted by India Today.

“Every time we set a challenge, Sam Curran has risen to it” : Stephen Fleming

The former New Zealand skipper further stated that Curran has exceeded their expectations and takes any challenge head-on. Fleming was glad to see the Englishman respond positively with the bat and backed him to do even bigger shortly in the tournament. He has a strike rate of 190 with the bat in eight IPL 2020 games along with nine wickets.

“In terms of his contribution, so far he has exceeded what we wanted, probably not in his eyes because he is very competitive. Every time we set a challenge, he has risen to it. He has been desperate to make a difference with the bat. I think we saw a glimpse of potentially what he can do for us in the future,” he added.

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