Missing out on Varun still hurts: CSK coach Fleming

CHENNAI: Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming rued the lost opportunity to pick its former net bowler Varun Chakravarthy at the IPL auction, saying missing out on him “still hurts us”.

Varun served as CSK’s net bowler for a few years and during his stint there, he troubled the CSK batters, including skipper MS Dhoni.

In his first IPL game at Chepauk, the Tamil Nadu mystery spinner played a vital role in Kolkata Knight Riders’ six-wicket win over CSK on Sunday.

“It still hurts us (missing out on Varun). He tortured us in the nets for a number of years. Just with the auctions, the way it is, we couldn’t pick him,” Fleming said at the post-match press conference.

Varun was picked up by Punjab Kings (Kings XI Punjab) for Rs 8.4 crore at the 2019 auction before KKR bought him for Rs 4 crore in 2020 and has retained him since. “The thing is with Tamil Nadu players all round in different teams, they knew about him as well. We were unable to keep him a secret.

“We were very excited by him as a talent when he bowled against us in the nets. And we would have loved him for a big price this year. He bowled very well on Sunday, he’s a weapon.”

On Sunday’s loss, Fleming said CSK did not read the conditions correctly.

“I don’t think we got the conditions right, last game turned out to be considerably tough to bat. This one actually had a spongy bounce to start and then pretty much lost a bit of sting as the game went on.

“Pretty difficult to try and work out what the surfaces are going to do with the dew. I said the whole way through, we’re still learning these new conditions,” Fleming added.

CSK returned to playing at home after four years and the New Zealander said the team is still trying to understand the conditions at Chepauk, which are different from how they were in 2019.

“I stress that it’s not the same as what we left (in 2019). We’ve worked hard to try and understand, we’re still trying to understand. So, everything that’s happened in the past is pretty much irrelevant as we get to know it and try to drive it a little bit differently.

“There have been scores well over 200 as well as scores of 145, so there’s been quite a bit of variance,” he added.