“He is nursing a knee injury, which you can see in some of his movement, which is hindering him somewhat,” Fleming said after the game. “But still what you saw today is a great player for us. His fitness has always been very professional.”
Fleming brushed aside any concerns around Dhoni’s fitness and lauded him for the way he manages himself ahead of an IPL season.
“He comes a month before the tournament starts, so he doesn’t get the opportunity to do a lot [before that],” Fleming said. “He will stay fit, they will do some netting in Ranchi, but his main pre-season [fitness] is done a month before when he comes to Chennai. And he works his way back into match-form and I think you can still see he’s playing pretty well. So we never have any doubts about the way he manages himself and he always gets himself up to speed.”
Sisanda Magala out of action for at least two weeks
Deepak Chahar two-three weeks away from returning
Super Kings had lost Chahar to a hamstring injury just one over into their game against Mumbai Indians. According to Fleming, he’s two-three weeks away from returning to action.
“I think a lot of players coming out of a big domestic season are a little bit broken, but we just keep having to find solutions,” Fleming said. “So we’ll do that in the next four days. But yeah, it’s not ideal yet. The captain has to then think on his feet [if bowlers keep getting injured]. Moeen Ali had to come back [after Magala hurt his webbing] and he hadn’t had a great day [but] he got the wicket of [Jos] Buttler which was good. And you’ve got young players like Akash [Singh] who is coming in for his first game, having to bowl some key overs. It’s not how we plan but T20 very rarely goes to plan.”
Ben Stokes being assessed on a day-to-day basis
Super Kings have a five-day break before they face Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bengaluru on April 17.