New Delhi, May 5 (IANS) Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming on Tuesday said the franchise is ‘pretty close’ to settling on its best playing eleven despite injuries to key players, while backing batter Dewald Brevis to make an impact in the latter stages of the tournament.

Sixth-placed CSK arrive into Tuesday’s clash and a win at the Arun Jaitley Stadium will take them to eight points. “I think so. We’ve been hampered a little bit by injuries to some key players, but it has been a process.

“We sort of, well it’s been well documented, restarted this year. So the process of just giving a bit of evidence around players has taken a bit of time, but, yeah, we think we’re pretty close,” Fleming said to broadcasters in a pre-game chat.

On Brevis, who has amassed only 64 runs in six innings, Fleming said, “Well, there’s still time. Often it’s a little bit of opportunity. So it’s been a little bit spasmodic for him. He missed the first three games, so he’s working his way back into the tournament. Didn’t get an opportunity, which was good for us in the last game.

“But he’s doing everything right. So it’s a lot of the work behind the scenes. How are the players training? How’s their mental state? And he’s very positive. So we’ve still got time and hopefully the back end of the tournament, he owns it.”

Fleming also praised the bowling unit, which did draw criticism in the initial stages of the competition. “It’s a little bit of confidence. We certainly put a lot of work into it. It was talked about being quite weak, but we knew we had players in certain roles that were in great form. They had also done some work since last year.

“We introduced a little bit of a different, or some different options for the death. Kamboj has really flushed with that. So that’s been great. We’ve introduced some players who have done well. Jamie Overton’s pace has been key. And the spinners have been very good. Noor Ahmad has come into some form. So there’s a really nice balance to that attack.”

On wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson’s form, Fleming said, “I think I’d take it. I think if you got a century every three, four, five games, I’d be pretty happy. So the key thing is you get a rotation. If it’s one guy who’s just in form, you’re going to come up a little bit short.

“But if you have two, three, four players that are playing well, then usually you’re going to compete pretty well. You’re going to be around that, sort of the orange cap or purple cap, whichever one it is. You’re going to get a bit of a rotation going where you can look after a guy who might lose form for two or three games or miss out for two or three games and others will pick that up. So that’s what you’re sort of looking for as a coach.”

–IANS

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