Chennai: Chennai Super Kings batting coach said that despite the team’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, grappling with fitness issues with a stiff back, he is keen to play all games for CSK.
Dhoni suffered the injury when he was batting against Kolkata Knight Riders in Eden Gardens and was forced to miss the next match against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Hyderabad. He however returned to play despite not being 100% fit.
With CSK having already qualified, when asked whether he would miss a few matches keeping World Cup in the mind, Hussey said “Well you would have to ask Dhoni that question. I think what I know about him is that he doesn’t want to miss any matches. He loves playing for CSK, this place is very close to his heart and he wants to play and do well and wants to see the team have success. So trying to get him to have rest is very difficult. I think he is keen to play all the games,” Hussey told reporters here ahead of Friday’s IPL match against Mumbai Indians.
CSK have lost already to Mumbai Indians when the two teams met earlier this season at Mumbai. Hussey was also aware of the challenges that Mumbai would pose to CSK and said that the plan for CSK is to restrict their scoring by taking wickets.
“First of all Mumbai have got great depth in their batting. They are very good team, one we respect very highly and particularly dangerous as you get to the back end of the innings as well. Guys like (Kieron) Pollard and Hardik Pandya, they are good hitters of the cricket ball,” he said.
“It has been a bit of strength of the CSK bowlers of late as they have put a lot of work into bowling at the death. It is going to be a great challenge. It is important to prepare well, plan well and mostly importantly execute well. Because with those sort of players at the end, if you miss by just a few metres, quite often it can go out of the park so taking wickets is obviously a goal, it does not always go that way but thats the plan.”
Hussey also said he was also impressed with the pich. “I though the pitch really improved for the last match. I though it played really well. We were not sure what a good score was but having seen batsmen hit through the line of the ball and hit straight sixes, it showed the pitch behaved a lot better and it was coming onto the bat nicely. That was a good sign.”
MI’s leg spinner Rahul Chahar is having a dream season this year, bamboozling the batsmen with his craft and they also have Mayank Markande to work in tandem with Chahar and Hussey also was excited for the battle between Mumbai’s youngsters versus Chennai’s experience.
“I have been watching them pretty closely and they are outstanding talents, Krunal does a very good job too dai in and day out too. So, we have experience and MI have got exciting youth with lot of energy and excitement to show the world that they are the next sort of great players to come through and I love these young players coming in and show off their talents. It’s going to be a great challenge for our batsmen to play against them but we have got some great spinners as well. I am looking forward to the match because it is always a fantastic contest between CSK and Mumbai Indians,” he concluded.