'CSK Lucky to have him, he's close to peak of his power': Stephen Fleming on star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja
IPL 2021: Describing Ravindra Jadeja as one of the most versatile cricketers going around, Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming said CSK are lucky to have the all-rounder in their side.
Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming said CSK are ‘lucky’ to have a player like Ravindra Jadeja, who is very close to attaining ‘peak of his powers.’
Jadeja, who almost single-handedly won CSK their match against DC, has been in top form in all three departments – batting, bowling and fielding – of the game in IPL 2021 and has been one of the major reasons behind CSK’s unbeaten run for five matches.
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"We don't have a leadership group. He is a key member of the side. He is without doubt close to the peak of his powers. He's still working very hard," Fleming said after CSK beat SRH by 7 wickets.
Fleming lavished praise on Jadeja, who came into the IPL after missing months of cricket following an injury in Australia, and said he was close to.
"Our doubts were around his lack of cricket coming into the tournament, so we had to work really hard to get him up to speed. He did that through hitting a lot of balls and training very hard and he got up to speed really quickly," Fleming revealed.
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The CSK coach described Jadeja as one of the most versatile players in the world.
"We're lucky to have him right now in his prime and he forms the core of the middle-order and allows a lot of options within the team with his skill-set," Fleming added.
The CSK coach said Ruturaj Gaikwad, who registered his highest IPL score – 75 - on Wednesday, has come up as a fine Indian talent and established himself.
"We have rated him (Ruturaj) highly for a long time. One of the setbacks he was having with Covid last year created a little bit of delay in introducing him at the right spot.
"But now, he is there and has established himself. He is a fine Indian talent. We are really excited about having him and what he is doing for us," he said.
Speaking about the changes CSK made to turn things around from a disappointing last season, Fleming said: "It was tough in the UAE (the last IPL's venue). We had a pretty bad run. A lot of things went against us, which we didn't make too much of at the time," Fleming said.
"We made some changes around our attitude towards what we were doing, and then we were really sure what style we wanted to play going into this year's IPL," he added.