Stephen Fleming, Chennai Super Kings head coach said Ravindra Jadeja is one of the most versatile players going around and that the 3-time champions are lucky to have him at the peak of his powers.
Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming is delighted to have Ravindra Jadeja, in his prime, playing for the 3-time champions, saying the in-form all-rounder gives the team a lot of options to them with his skillset in the middle-order.
Stephen Fleming: CSK Lucky To Have Ravindra Jadeja In His Prime Form
Stephen Fleming pointed out that there were doubts over Ravindra Jadeja’s form at the start of IPL 2021, considering he was out of competitive action for more than 2 months after suffering a finger injury during the recent Test series against Australia in January. He missed the England series at home and recovered from the injury at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru before joining CSK in Mumbai for the new IPL season.
The former New Zealand captain said Ravindra Jadeja worked really hard at the nets to get up to speed ahead of the new season and returned to form “really quickly”. The all-rounder has been in fine form for CSK in IPL 2021. The India all-rounder has hit 109 runs in 6 matches, striking at close to 190. With the ball, he has picked up 5 wickets and has conceded at little over 6 runs per over so far.
Notably, Ravindra Jadeja left the cricket fraternity awestruck with a 28-ball 62 not out against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday. He hit 5 sixes in Purple Cap holder Harshal Patel’s last over as the RCB pacer conceded the joint-most expensive tally of 37 runs in the over. He also picked 3/13 and effected a runout against RCB.
“Without doubt, [Jadeja is] close to the peak of his powers. That last game (against RCB) , I don’t think you can ask for much more. He’s still working very hard,” Stephen Fleming told the presss after CSK’s 7-wicket win over SRH.
“Our doubts were around his lack of cricket coming into the tournament, so we had to work really hard to get him up to speed. He did that by hitting a lot of balls and training very hard and he got up to speed really quickly.”
“We think he’s one of the most versatile players in the world, in T20 in particular, but in other formats too. We’re lucky to have him right now in his prime and he forms the core of the middle-order and allows a lot of options within the team with his skill set,” Stephen Fleming added.
On Wednesday, Ravindra Jadeja came up with a tidy 3 overs and gave the finishing touches with the bat in their chase of 172 against Sunrisers Hyderabad as CSK returned to the top of the IPL 2021 points table.
Stephen Fleming: Faf Du Plessis Is Going From Strength To Strength
Meanwhile, Stephen Fleming also heaped rich praise on senior South Africa star and CSK opener, Faf du Plessis, saying he is going from strength to strength even at this stage of his career. Faf Du Plessis, 36, holds the Orange Cap for most runs so far in IPL 2021 after having hit 3 successive fifties, including one against SRH on Wednesday. Faf du Plessis and younger partner Ruturaj Gaikwad helped CSK make light work of a 172-run target against SRH.
“Faf in particular is in outstanding form. At this stage of his career, people were expecting him to be less of a threat but he’s going from strength to strength. We were just hoping that Rutu [Ruturaj Gaikwad] would find some form and get a score because we had no doubt how good he is and how good he is going to be,” he said.
The former South Africa skipper leads the run-getters list with 270 runs in six matches at an average of 67.5. He has also maintained a good strike rate of over 140. A display of timing and class from both the CSK openers – Ruturaj Gaikwad (75) and Faf du Plessis (56) at the top comfortably helped Chennai chase down the target after SRH scored 171/3 on board.
Brief Scores: Chennai Super Kings: 173-3 (Ruturaj Gaikwad 75, Faf du Plessis 56; Rashid Khan 3-36 ) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad: 171/3(Manish Pandey 61, David Warner 57; Lungi Ngidi 2-35) by 7 wickets.