IPL 2022: Not concerned about Ravindra Jadeja’s form – Stephen Fleming

Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming is not bothered about Ravindra Jadeja’s poor form in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League.

Jadeja was given the captaincy bridle at the start of the season but the responsibility was affecting his game as he couldn’t deliver his best in the first eight matches.

Jadeja was dismissed after scoring only three runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune on Wednesday. The match was in the balance when Jadeja came to the crease but he was dismissed by Harshal Patel. However, the left-arm orthodox spinner bowled a decent spell as he conceded 20 runs in his four overs but went wicketless.

The southpaw has mustered only 116 runs in 10 matches in IPL 2022 at an average of 19.33 and a strike rate of 118.36. Thus, he clearly hasn’t been at his usual best for the reigning champions.

“I am not concerned, T20 game can be tough. When you are batting at No. 5 or No. 6, you don’t get a lot of time to get the tempo or rhythm right. We will look at it now and work out what the best order will be going forward, but no I am not concerned about his form,” Fleming said in the post-match press conference.

Former New Zealand captain feels CSK have been below-par in their game throughout the season and thus the results haven’t gone their way.

“I think we’ve been off in all departments, really, just off. You don’t have to be far off to get hurt in this competition, and our fielding as well at times, the catches we’ve dropped is of concern so, but we’re not far away.

“In a lot of games you could say we were really close to winning them and had it taken away or we weren’t quite good enough to get across the line, but that’s usually the story of the competition if you’re just off in your key parts of your game. So I think all three of them have just been below par.

“We haven’t had the quantity of the run that we need and we’ve just lacked some wickets and some penetration at times. We’ve lost some bowlers also, you’ve got to acknowledge that, but yeah, we’ve just been off,” Fleming added.

CSK haven’t been at their best as they have failed to come up with a good show. Furthermore, their batting did let them down against RCB on Wednesday. CSK will next face Delhi Capitals at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai on Sunday.