The much-awaited 11th edition of Indian Premier League is all set to kick-start just in a few hours and ahead of the opening match of the tournament, here is some bad news for the Chennai Super Kings fans.
South African skipper Faf du Plessis, who was picked by Chennai team, will not play in the opening game.
Talking to media on Friday, CSK head coach Stephen Fleming said that Faf du Plessis won’t play in the opening game due to his finger injury.
Fleming, a former New Zealand captain, also said “there are nerves in the camp but no more than normal”.
On Saturday, MS Dhoni-led CSK will start their campaign against Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians.
“I think we are well prepared. It’s just a lot of nerves around, but no more than normal. Players want to get into it and we’ve had the best part of 12 days leading into the competition. The general feeling is we’re just ready to go,” Fleming said on the eve of their match against MI at the Wankhede Stadium here.
“It’s a great rivalry and this is what the competition needs. We couldn’t have asked for a better game to start with. A game of this intensity at this ground is always a thrill. So the players are excited about it,” he added.
Asked if he feels CSK spent a lot for players who are over the hill, Fleming said, “I’m not sure when a young player came out and was the top run-scorer. You get some exceptions, like Rashid Khan (Afghanistan) and Washington Sundar. But there’s only a handful, whereas experienced players play major parts in the whole tournament, so thats why I value experience.”
“There’s also about the quality of player, like (Dwayne) Bravo is still competing well, (Shane) Watson’s competing well, Harbhajan (Singh) has great skill sets and Dhoni is a fine leader. So the players weve picked, I dont think they are spent by any means. It is a year-by year proposition and this year I think they look very good.”
Chennai Super Kings squad: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur, N Jagadeesan, Santner, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Kanishk Seth, Ngidi, Dhruv Shorey, M Vijay, Billings, Mark Wood, Kshitiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi.
-With IANS inputs.