T20 2018: Chennai still learning about Pune wicket, says coach Stephen Fleming

Stephen Fleming

Going into the second half of the T20 2018, Chennai are sitting comfortably in second spot on the table. But though they seem to have most bases covered, there are a few chinks in their armour, which were exposed by Mumbai on Saturday. Chennai obviously bought certain players keeping in mind the spin-friendly conditions in Chennai, but with MS Dhoni's men being forced to play their home games in Pune now, the entire bowling strategy needs to change.

"Those [Pune] are quite different conditions than what we have in Chennai. There is more grass on the pitch here. The bounce here is different from Chennai too. We're still learning about this Pune wicket," Chennai head coach Stephen Fleming said.

Going into their third home game here, against the Delhi today, Chennai must have a different bowling plan. They will be without pacer Deepak Chahar, out for "at least a couple of weeks" due to a hamstring injury. And with not many other Indian pacers of repute in their squad, they may bring in a foreign pacer. The obvious choices are England's David Willey, and South African Lungi Ngidi. But that will mean leaving out spinner Imran Tahir, and replacing him with Karn Sharma.

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