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“So I think he’s taking to the job brilliantly at the moment; I know he’s got some good support around him but he’s a very smart guy and a very cricket-savvy guy, you know; he understands the game well. He’s got a good team to work with as well, which helps as well, but I think he’s been fantastic so far.”
“He’s just trying to soak up as much knowledge as he possibly can,” Hussey said of Ravindra. “I think he really feeds off the crowd a bit as well. And yeah, once you’ve got a couple of good shots away earlier, I think his confidence grew and he believed that ‘I can perform on this stage and grow from there.’
“I think he’s just gone out there with a clear mind and a nice positive attitude and got off to a good start. There’s not a lot to work on with these level of world-class players.”
“Well, he’s got a lot of natural ability and natural hitting ability,” Hussey said. “We’ve seen it at practice, you know, especially against the spinners. I mean, he can hit a long way and he can hit the ball very cleanly.
“But it’s still a big ask for a young player to come in for his first IPL game against arguably the best T20 bowler of all time in Rashid Khan and hit the first ball that you face for six. I mean, that’s just crazy, isn’t it? So we’re very excited for him.
“He was excited to play, especially here at Chepauk, with such a great crowd. And I think that’s the great thing about youth, they have no fear so they can come out and just play with that complete freedom, right? It was also a bit of a masterstroke from the think tank as well. Because I think we’re all expecting MSD to come out and play those last sort of a few balls. But they realised that he [Rizvi] has got some natural power against spin and that’s why they wanted to send the youngster out. And, you know, he delivered two sixes at the end which was great for his confidence.”
Batting depth all the way down to No.10 and the Impact Player rule have contributed to CSK batting with hyper-aggression and aiming for above-par totals. Hussey said the team management wouldn’t be critical of players who get dismissed while adopting that approach.
“It’s definitely been a directive from Fleming to keep pushing the game forward,” Hussey said. “With the Impact Player rule coming in, we’ve got basically an extra batsman and an extra bowler throughout the game. So the batting order keeps lengthening. I think we’ve got MSD at No.8. Which is crazy, you know, like, and MSD is batting really well at the moment as well.
“So, because we’ve got so much depth in our resources there, it means the players up the order [aren’t] in in two minds, take the positive route and they’ll certainly have the backing from the coaches and the captain that we’d prefer you to keep trying to push the game forward. If you get out while doing so, that’s fine. You’ll never be criticised for that. Flem’s talk is about playing fast. We want to keep playing fast.”
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
Source: ESPN Crickinfo