Chennai: Injuries seem to be a permanent companion of India discard Irfan Pathan as the Baroda all-rounder has again reported unfit even before the ball has started rolling for Chennai Super Kings, who will be taking on Delhi Daredevils in their opening IPL encounter on Thursday.
Pathan, who was bought by two-time champions CSK was training for the past few days, has again sustained an injury and chief coach Stephen Fleming confirmed that the left-arm seamer will not be available for selection against Daredevils.
“Irfan Pathan is not fit. Another pacer Andrew Tye is also carrying an injury. They won’t be considered for selection at this stage. Their progress will be assessed on a day to day basis,” Fleming confirmed at the pre-match media conference on Wednesday.
Daredevils’ mentor T.A. Sekhar, meanwhile, asserted that his team will put up a much-improved show after finishing as wooden spooners last time. “We should be doing much better than what we did in the last two years. We have strengthened our team with the hope to bringing overall improvement in the team since we won only two matches last year,” Sekhar told reporters.
“We have Yuvraj Singh this time. Shreyas Iyer is an exciting cricketer. In all counts, we want to do well in this IPL and, hopefully, we will be the first team to make the top four and then go up in the ladder,” he said.
Talking to the media within hours after the team checked into the hotel, Sekhar said: “we have looked at our all weaknesses and where we lacked last year in particular. We have got a very good spin attack and left-am seamers in the team this time. We have taken Jayant Yadav, who is the third highest wicket-taker in Ranji this season.”
Sekhar was a bit disappointed on the issue of Sri Lankan players, who again will not feature in games played in Chennai.
Angelo Mathews is a key member of the Daredevils squad. “Definitely it is a setback because he is not bought for a small money. He was bought for $1.2 million (Dh4.414 million). We bought him with a view that we could use the all-rounder combination of Albie [Morkel] and Angelo.”
On his seventh year as coach, Fleming was asked about veteran left-armer Ashish Nehra and the coach had a lot of good words about the former India player. “We have a trend reviving older players. Nehra still has some life left. People focus on youth. But I like experience.
“Nehra and Hussey are key components in our side. The knowledge they can pass on is immense. The M.S. Dhoni and Raina factor will be crucial. I like their work and attitude.”
Talking about seamers in the team, Fleming stressed on the need to rotate the players. “The pacers in our squad is quite well rested. Only Mohit Sharma has had a full campaign. It’s the same with the overseas seamers. They didn’t have a full campaign. But this being a demanding tournament, we need to rotate them and keep them fresh.”
