MS Dhoni regrets losing Varun Chakravarthy in Chennai Super Kings auction, says coach Stephen Fleming

Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming lamented missing the chance to pick his former net bowler Varun Chakravarthy in the IPL 2023 auction, saying that it ‘still hurts us’ to miss him. Chakraborty served as CSK’s net bowler for a few years and during his stint there he troubled CSK batsmen including skipper MS Dhoni.

The Tamil Nadu off-spinner, playing his first IPL 2023 game at Chepauk, played a key role in Kolkata Knight Riders’ six-wicket win over CSK on Sunday. “It still hurts us (missing Varun). He tortured us for many years in a trap. The way the auction happened, we could not retain it.

Chakraborty was bought by the Punjab Kings (Kings XI Punjab) for Rs 8.4 crore in the 2019 auction, before KKR bought him for Rs 4 crore in 2020 and has retained him ever since. “With the Tamil Nadu players, it is a matter of every round in different teams, they knew about that too. We were unable to keep it a secret. We were very excited about him as a talent when he used to bowl against us in the nets. And we would have loved him at a high cost this year. He bowled very well today, he is a weapon.”

MS Dhoni signing the number 7 CSK jersey for Varun Chakravarthy. pic.twitter.com/aICHZh6VOK

– Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) May 15, 2023

‘Chennai Super Kings misread the situation’

On Sunday’s defeat, Fleming said CSK misread the conditions. “I don’t think we got the conditions right, the last game turned out to be quite difficult to bat on. It was a really spongy bounce to start with and then lost a bit of sting as the game progressed. It’s very difficult to try and work out what the surface is going to do with the dew. I said all the way through, we’re still learning these new conditions,” Fleming said.

MS Dhoni-led CSK played at home after two years and the New Zealander said they are still trying to understand the conditions at Chepauk, which are different from 2019. We’re gone (in 2019). We’ve worked hard to try and understand, we’re still trying to understand. So, whatever happened in the past is largely irrelevant as we know this and try to operate a little differently.

“There have been scores of 200 plus as well as scores of 145, so there is a lot of variation,” he added.

Rinku Singh is the ideal package: KKR coach Abhishek Nayar

Meanwhile, KKR assistant coach Abhishek Nayar described Rinku Singh as the ideal package to have in any team. “Rinku Singh has always been a great player of spin. If you go back and look at his first-class season, domestic cricket in general, Rinku is one name that will come up as one of the three-four guys who have been successful in the last two-three seasons. match.

“He has always been someone who has done it for UP in different circumstances in domestic cricket. He knows how to play in these conditions, one of the most challenging pitches domestic cricket gives you. He is going through a tough phase, I am very happy to see him achieve success like this.

Nayyar explained how much hard work went in behind the scenes, which resulted in Chakraborty’s fortunes turning around. “After last season, we discussed a lot about what we got wrong and also I think when you play season after season, teams target you differently. One of the things we tried to do in the off-season and throughout the season was understand the challenges we were going to face. The KKR assistant coach said there is a big difference in terms of how he is using his deliveries – he moves away a lot more than last year.