Chennai, May 2 (IANS) Stephen Fleming, the head coach of Chennai Super Kings, has said fast-bowling all-rounder Deepak Chahar’s hamstring injury doesn’t look good as the early signs to its extent weren’t great.

Chahar, who previously missed two matches in the IPL 2024 season due to a niggle, hobbled off the field after bowling just two deliveries, and would never return to the field for the remainder of the game. It meant CSK became a bowler short in dewy conditions at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, where Punjab Kings outclassed them by seven wickets.

"The travelogue is pretty busy. There's a lot of ins and outs. So, Deepak Chahar doesn't look good. The initial feeling wasn't great. So, I'm hoping for a more positive report when the physio and the doctor have a look," said Fleming in post-match press conference.

Ahead of their reverse fixture against PBKS in Dharamsala on May 5, CSK look a messed up in their fast-bowling stocks. Apart from Chahar’s injury, Sri Lanka duo of Matheesha Pathirana and Maheesh Theekshana are flying out to Colombo for visa work ahead of the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies.

Tushar Deshpande missed Wednesday’s match due to flu, while Mustafizur Rahman has completed his IPL 2024 commitments and will link up with Bangladesh team ahead of their home T20I series against Zimbabwe.

"The Sri Lankan boys are off to get their visas. We're hoping that their process is smooth and we get them back for the next game up north. Richard Gleeson was good and it was a positive. Losing Fizz (Rahman) is disappointing, there's a lot happening isn't it?"

"Tushar has a bit of flu going around as well. So we've had to make a few changes, which is unusual. Again, that's part of it and again we have got the resources. Just they haven't had the game time to be really comfortable with their roles and us to be comfortable with a game plan, which we're struggling with a little," added Fleming.

Against PBKS, CSK promoted Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja, to number three and four respectively in a bid to counter the spinners. But the duo failed to leave a mark, as CSK were unable to hit a boundary in the middle-overs.

Moreover, Sameer Rizvi was introduced as an impact player, but hit a laborious 21 off 23 balls and Daryl Mitchell, who got a fifty against Sunrisers Hyderabad at number three, was demoted to number eight, leaving fans baffled.

"The Dube factor is the one (reason behind batting reshuffle). "So if you get to six overs, that's the perfect time for him to come in. The next thing is with left-right (combination), we want Jadeja, who has got a positive role as well, to come in and take them (the spinners) on as well, but they bowled well.”

“The Rizvi one, we will discuss a little bit more, may go the other way around with that one but again he's positive and his ability to hit sixes in training has certainly been good. But there's a temperament part of that as well that young players need to learn. So we have got a bit of information from that.”

"The casualty was Mitchell going down the order. What we learnt from the first part of the tournament was if it goes too low, there are other players - Moeen Ali and MS (Dhoni) - who can push the game along. So the window closes there but it was very much getting the tactics right for what we wanted to do in the middle and that was to break their spinners up but they won that competition," elaborated Fleming.

He signed off by defending an out of sorts Ajinkya Rahane, who was conservative to begin in power-play and has struggled to get a move on in the entire competition. "I thought he (Rahane) was good and has been probably a bit too aggressive in what he wants to do. Keep in mind, we're batting on wickets here that we don't know how they are gonna play.”

“So we got to take a bit of a pause to see what a good score is. If you are 3 for 30, the game is pretty much over. We have gotten an assessment period which we want those two to do. This was very good, 55 for no loss on that wicket was spot on.”

“He looked good, and it's the next phase, (to ensure that) his hitting that was so good last year, is more crisp. It's not for lack of intent. In fact, he has doubled up on intent. We're fine with Jinks and the role he plays," he concluded.