Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming has conceded that his team is facing a 'conundrum' in finding the right balance in their Playing XI after early struggles in IPL 2025. CSK suffered their third-straight loss in the season when they suffered a 25-run defeat to Delhi Capitals at their home in Chepauk on Saturday, April 5.
Speaking after the match, head coach Fleming admitted that they are facing issues in finding the right balance as the team is struggling early in the season. "Yeah, that (finding the balance) is the conundrum at the moment," Fleming said at the post-match press conference on Saturday. "To get more solidity at the top, we have to remove obviously an overseas player, so we're grappling just with the combination that we need. When it doesn't go right, you pore over it and analyse that and see if it was the right call."
CSK have fielded 17 players so far in four matches, which is an unprecedented thing in itself for a team that backs its players to the core. They went with Sam Curran in the first two games, before they dropped him after he struggled for Jamie Overton in the third match. CSK then tried fixing the opening issue of Rahul Tripathi not firing as they played Devon Conway at the top, which axed Overton from the team. They have been chopping and changing stuff pretty much this season.
"We felt that our batting in the powerplays has been below par and going too hard was probably not the way, particularly on our wicket, which is a little bit tricky," Fleming said. "So we're looking just to settle that with guys that have been in good form and have done it before, so that's the theory behind that, and that's what we'll possibly continue with.
"But it just comes down to run production. You can have all the tactics you like, if you've got a couple of players in form, they can cover for others. But at the moment we're just not quite getting the big individual scores we need so that the cameos can do their part; we're getting starts but not quite enough."
CSK have lost three games in a row and have only two points in their opening four matches. CSK find themselves in ninth place in the points table and have their task cut out if they have to bounce back.