Stephen Fleming, the head coach of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), expressed his regret of not picking their former net bowler, Varun Chakravarthy, during the IPL auctions. Chakravarthy served as a net bowler for CSK for several years and even troubled CSK’s batters, including captain MS Dhoni, during his tenure. Chakravarthy played his first IPL game for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday against CSK, eventually leading to their victory.
While speaking to the press after the match, Fleming stated that missing out on Chakravarthy still hurts them. According to Fleming, Chakravarthy has tortured CSK in the nets for years, but the team couldn’t retain him because of the way the auctions work.
Chakravarthy was bought by Punjab Kings (Kings XI Punjab) for Rs 8.4 crore in 2019 IPL auctions, after which KKR purchased him for Rs 4 crore in 2020, and they have held onto him since.
Fleming also spoke about how they were unable to keep him as a secret since Tamil Nadu players across different teams already knew about him. However, CSK was excited about him as a talent. He added that they would have loved to have picked him up this year for a big price, considering he is a talented player and was a weapon for KKR on Sunday.
On the other hand, Fleming accepted that CSK didn’t read the conditions correctly, leading to their defeat on Sunday. He emphasized that they are still trying to understand the Chepauk conditions, which have changed since 2019.
Meanwhile, Abhishek Nayar, KKR’s assistant coach, praised Rinku Singh for his performance on Sunday and talked about the hard work that went into transforming Chakravarthy’s fortunes.