IPL 2018: Faf du Plessis to miss clash against Mumbai Indians, says Stephen Fleming

Mumbai: Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) opener between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, the latter have been dealt with a huge blow as Stephen Fleming confirmed that Faf du Plessis would miss the match.

MS Dhoni-led CSK are making a comeback after two years, and the two-time champions have already been given fresh injury blows.

“Faf won’t play tomorrow. He’s nursing a couple of injuries he’s had throughout the summer. We think that its in his and our best interest to give him a little bit of time to get that right. His finger as well. So, as I say, its little beaten from that series which was tough for them,” Fleming said.  

“ He’s here and positive about playing. Probably if pushed he could’ve. But we want him for for the majority of the tournament and not just the start and have it go wrong,” the coach added.

Fleming, meanwhile, did not give a surprised look when asked about the numerous changes in the team.

“I’m not surprised. One of the aspects we looked at in the auction was the workloads of the international teams in the play up. We’ve looked at worst case scenarios and some of those for other teams  have happened so I guess from a personal point of view, we’re happy that all our squad is reasonably fit,” he continued.

“Faf’s carrying a bit of battle scars from South Africa but apart from that everyone looks pretty good. There’s always a little bit of change because there’s such a big gap between the auction and the tournament,” the former Kiwi skipper added.

He also added that Lungi Ngidi and Mark Wood had arrived on Thursday.

“We’ve had guys come in last night, (Lungi) Ngidi and (Mark) Wood so their first training today. So there’s still a lot of aspects of our team that warrant further discussion, it was always going to be the case right up to the night before.

“There’s people we’re meeting for the first time, skills we’re meeting for the first time and now we’ve to try and incorporate that and our overall strategy. So there’s still little bit of work to do on that,” he concluded.