‘Doesn’t look good; hoping for a more positive report’, says Fleming on Chahar’s injury

CHENNAI: Stephen Fleming, the head coach of Chennai Super Kings, has said fast-bowling all-rounder Deepak Chahar’s hamstring injury doesn’t look good as the early signs to its extent weren’t great.

Chahar, who previously missed two matches in the IPL 2024 season due to a niggle, hobbled off the field after bowling just two deliveries, and never returned to the field for the remainder of the game.

It meant CSK became a bowler short in dewy conditions at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, where Punjab Kings outclassed them by seven wickets.

“The travelogue is pretty busy. There’s a lot of ins and outs. So, Deepak Chahar doesn’t look good. The initial feeling wasn’t great. So, I’m hoping for a more positive report when the physio and the doctor have a look,” said Fleming in a post-match press conference.

Ahead of their reverse fixture against PBKS in Dharamsala on May 5, CSK look messed up in their fast-bowling stocks. Apart from Chahar’s injury, Sri Lanka duo of Matheesha Pathirana and Maheesh Theekshana are flying out to Colombo for visa work ahead of the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies. Tushar Deshpande missed Wednesday’s match due to flu, while Mustafizur Rahman has completed his IPL 2024 commitments and will link up with the Bangladesh team ahead of their home T20I series against Zimbabwe.

“The Sri Lankan boys are off to get their visas. We’re hoping that their process is smooth and we get them back for the next game up north. Richard Gleeson was good and it was a positive. Losing Fizz (Rahman) is disappointing, there’s a lot happening isn’t it?

“Tushar has a bit of flu going around as well. So, we’ve had to make a few changes, which is unusual. Again, that’s part of it and again we have got the resources,” added Fleming. Against PBKS, CSK promoted Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja, to number three and four respectively in a bid to counter the spinners. But the duo failed to leave a mark, as CSK were unable to hit a boundary in the middle-overs.

Moreover, Sameer Rizvi was introduced as an impact player, but hit a laborious 21 off 23 balls and Daryl Mitchell, who got a fifty against Sunrisers Hyderabad at number three, was demoted to number eight, leaving fans baffled.

“The casualty was Mitchell going down the order. What we learnt from the first part of the tournament was if it goes too low, there are other players - Moeen Ali and MS (Dhoni) - who can push the game along. So, the window closes there but it was very much getting the tactics right for what we wanted to do in the middle and that was to break their spinners up but they won that competition,” elaborated Fleming.