IPL 2017: Stephen Fleming Banking On Imran Tahir To Deliver The Goods In Absence Of R Ashwin

Apr 2, 2017 at 11:32 AM

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IPL 2017: Stephen Fleming Banking On Imran Tahir To Deliver The Goods In Absence Of R Ashwin

Losing a player of Ravichandran Ashwin’s calibre is always going to be a huge blow for any team, and there is absolutely no doubt that Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) will be missing him badly in the upcoming season.

The ace spinner has been ruled out of the entire season owing to a sports hernia and there is very little RPS can do in this regard other than expecting other players to feel in the huge void left by the India off-spinner. And their head coach Stephen Fleming is pinning his hopes on Imran Tahir.

The South Africa bowler, who is the top-ranked ODI and T20 bowler, was signed by the Pune-based franchise to replace the injured Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh.

One of the best limited-overs bowlers in the world right now, Tahir found no buyers at the auction in February.

“Ashwin was an important part of our plans. It is disappointing not to have him but you can understand with the kind of cricket he has played in the last six months, there were going to be wear-and-tear injuries,” Fleming said.

“We weren’t aware of Ashwin’s injury (when we picked Tahir to replace Marsh). We picked him because obviously, he is the best T20 bowler in the world. Surprisingly he wasn’t picked in the auctions. With Ashwin not there, Tahir, along with other youngsters will try to use their skills and make the most of it,” the coach added.

Fleming would also be hoping young Australian legs-spinner Adam Zampa to do well this season.

Taking about his star-studded team and a newly-appointed skipper, the former Kiwi opener said:

“If you look at the team, we have got Steve, we have Faf du Plessis, we have Ajinkya Rahane, who is a Test captain and then MS Dhoni. So without concentrating just on Steve as captain, which I am excited about working with, we have got leadership and it is very important for a young side like us. So using the experience and leadership is going to be my challenge as a coach.”

Fleming further hinted that the youngsters will get opportunities to make it to the playing XI.

“There are going to be opportunities this year. It is up to this young group how they perform in this week (training). It has been a short span of time, but already a couple of players have performed well. We are getting a good idea of how we will stand up to the extra pressure of IPL. We can’t be sure of the fate of the first few games, but we are excited about the skills the youngsters will bring in the game,” he said.

RPS will kick off their campaign against Mumbai Indians on April 6.

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