IPL 2023: Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming has said they lost the opportunity to pick their former net bowler Varun Chakravarthy at the IPL auctions. Fleming further said that missing out on him “still hurts us (CSK)”. Chakravarthy was a net bowler for Chennai for a few years and troubled several CSK batters, including skipper MS Dhoni. The former BlackCaps captain’s statement comes after the Tamil Nadu off-spinner played a vital role in Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) six-wicket win over CSK in Chepauk on Sunday. Follow Indian Premier League 2023 LIVE Updates on InsideSport.IN.
Stephen Fleming said that they still feel bad for not buying Varun in IPL. pic.twitter.com/pb98lbqrWr
— Dr. Cric Point (@drcricpoint) May 15, 2023
“It still hurts us (missing out on Varun). He tortured us in the nets for a number of years. Just with the auctions, the way it is, we couldn’t retain him.” Fleming said at the post match press conference.
Chakravarthy was picked up Punjab Kings (Kings XI Punjab) for Rs 8.4 crore at the 2019 auction before KKR bought him for Rs 4 crore in 2020 and have retained him since.
“The thing is with Tamil Nadu players all round in different teams, they knew about him as well. We were unable to keep him a secret.
“We were very excited by him as a talent when he bowled against us in the nets. And we would have loved him for a big price this year. He bowled very well today, he’s a weapon.” On Sunday’s loss, Fleming said CSK did not read the conditions correctly.
“I don’t think we got the conditions right, last game turned out to be considerably tough to bat. This one actually had a spongy bounce to start and then pretty much lost a bit of sting as the game went on.
“Pretty difficult to try and work out what the surfaces are going to do with the dew. I said the whole way through, we’re still learning these new conditions,” Fleming added.
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