DUBAI: Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming on Thursday sought to play down concerns over the team's middle-order which has not been able to get going in recent games.
CSK's old guards like MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu are failing consistently but it was a solid opening pair of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis that had laid the foundation for them in most wins.
"You have to be concerned when you lose three games in a row. Batting first, coming to grips with setting a total, I think it has been a little tricky going around the venues trying to find the target scores," Fleming said after their six-wicket defeat against Punjab Kings.
Fleming, who has been CSK's coach for 13 seasons (he was player in season 1), said that this has been the team's template for years where they have had hiccups before finding their way back at the business end.
"I am not overly worried about going forward because it can change very quickly. You always get a couple on the way...In my experience, it has always been the case. We have a little bit of leeway.
"The confidence and the method that we use, we have to tune that up in the next couple of days," the former New Zealand captain added.
Asked what was wrong during the CSK batting, the head coach described it as a pretty much stunted effort.
"We could not find a method to get any fluency into our batting, trying to find the best way to take the bowling on...It was probably a bit slow. Getting the pace of the wicket and trying to find the tempo to create a score. We just came up short. Whenever we get close, we lose a wicket. It was a pretty stunted effort in the first innings to keep us below par," he added.
About the injury status of veteran left-hander Suresh Raina and if he would be available for the play-offs, he said, "I am not sure really on Suresh...with regard to his injury status."
To a question on the possibility of playing an extra bowler instead of playing Robin Uthappa, Fleming said the balance was good.
"Considering we are batting below par not really. The balance is really good with the six bowlers that we've got. This tournament is difficult and we have different rhythms at different times. We have struggled to come to grips with the Dubai surface in the last couple of games," he added.
