The newly set-up IPL franchise, Rising Pune Supergiants have not had the best start to their debut IPL campaign and are all but out of contention for a place in the qualifiers.
A number of problems have stuttered their progress including the number of injuries but the skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been under immense criticism for a number of decisions.
To start off with, the Indian international wicket-keeper has drawn a lot of criticism for not promoting himself up the order and in the bowling department, he has got a lot of flak for under-utilizing arguably the best bowler in the line-up Ravichandran Ashwin.
But the coach of the franchise, Stephen Fleming, backed up his team-mates and his skipper in this hard time.
He started by saying that it was not easy for the new franchise to get all the group of players together and that they are still pondering over the correct combination of the side for their next game.
it was a big challenge to bring another group together. You have to get to know people very quickly and not only that you have to get your combination right. How players perform,” Fleming said, talking ahead of the clash against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Ashwin, one of the main stays of the Indian international team has not bowled his full quota of 4 overs in any of the last 10 T20 games he has played and Fleming had an interesting view on this.
He felt that the conditions in the grounds and the history of the players has played a huge role in diminishing the effect of the off-spinner in recent times.
MS has been little reticent bringing the spinners in knowing the history against some of the players — Kohli is probably one who plays Ashwin very well,” the coach said, explaining the decision of not giving Ashwin the full quota in the last 5 games for Pune.
He went on to say that the whole franchise still believes in the ability of the spinner and that the conditions of the pitch and also the ability of the opposition have seen this happen.
I know it causes much speculation. But believe me, he is still highly valued in our side. He bowled beautifully in the last game when the conditions were right and he got 1/16.”
“We know his talents, but conditions have often dictated. It certainly nothing more than that,” Fleming added.
The former New Zealand skipper also felt that the current squad at Pune had a number of talented players at their disposal.
Talking about their bench strength, Fleming said, I’m happy with the core group of players. These are some of India’s best players. The test is whether they keep reinventing themselves.”
“That’s a positive. We are looking to take forward to next year. Maybe we are a team which would be at the top of the table not bottom,” he added.