A key component of Chennai Super Kings’ success over the years has been the focus on a settled combination, as coach Stephen Fleming never tires of reiterating.
The real challenge for the team will be in the upcoming week which will see the side play four matches in eight days across three cities, starting Tuesday against Kolkata Knight Riders at home.
On the eve of the Knight Riders game, Fleming said: “It is an important week for us; we need to manage the players and, at some stage, may have to look at the bench.”
Fleming added that Ashish Nehra is one player the team will monitor closely.
“Nehra is not in the early days of his career though he is going great guns. We just need to make sure to monitor and take care of him properly,” he said.
In case Nehra is rested at some stage, a potential replacement would be fellow left-armer Irfan Pathan, but the Baroda pacer is yet to attain full fitness.
When asked about his status, Fleming said: “Irfan is coming close to full fitness. He needs some match practice.
“But we have settled on who we are playing, and it is difficult to do that in the middle of the tournament.”
Fleming said the team remains wary of being overconfident, and said his side would not tinker with the set up unnecessarily.
“We are guarding against too much confidence and misusing that. We are trying to not complicate things.
“We don’t want to tinker with the team to give players game time and batting time, and achieve other goals,” Fleming said.
