IPL 2022: We Stuck With Mukesh Choudhary And We Reaped The Rewards - Stephen Fleming

They might have been unseemly in the last league game Chennai Super Kings played against Rajasthan Royals at the Brabourne Stadium on Friday night.

However, the head coach of the Chennai franchise, Stephen Fleming, said that rookies Mukesh Choudhary and Simarjeet Singh had been the team’s unearthing this season, adding that the duo had “responded well to pressure”.

Stephen Fleming Happy With CSK’s Pace Duo

In just his first IPL season, 25-year-old Choudhary arose as a potential fast bowling prospect for CSK, taking 16 wickets in 13 games, with his best being 4/46. The 24-year-old Simarjeet, a right-arm skiddy pacer, also showed promising signs for the future, taking four wickets in six games with a best of 2/27.

Fleming commended the pair, saying at the finish of CSK’s season in IPL 2022, “I think he (Mukesh) was excellent. A nervous start, but we stuck with him and we reaped the rewards towards the end. He just got better and better. Simarjeet is also responding to the pressure. So, those two boys definitely were positive.”

Stephen Fleming further referenced that all-rounder Moeen Ali “showed his class” with bat and ball.

“Ali was superb. He is one of our marquee players and (on Friday against RR) I thought it was probably going to be a 250-run wicket, but the game suddenly changed at the halfway point of our batting. But Moeen has shown us his class with both the bat and the ball,” Fleming added.

It Was A Mixed Success: Stephen Fleming Reviews CSK’s IPL 2022 Season

Illuminating the less than ideal season, where CSK completed 10th on the points table with eight points, Stephen Fleming said the reigning champs encountered a “mixed success” this year.

“It was mixed success. We sort of stuttered our way through. We had a number of games that were close, but we were not good enough to get across the line. That’s the normal story of the season we don’t qualify.

But, yeah the first year of the three-year cycle is a chance to see some players. This one today was great to have a look at a couple of guys under pressure,” said the New Zealander.

Also Read: IPL 2022: Selectors Thought Chosen Players Were Better Than Me: Shikhar Dhawan Opens Up On T20 WC 2021 Snub