Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming showered rich praise on Moeen Ali, stating that the England cricketer has bolstered the team with his all-round attributes.
Fleming’s comment came after Moeen played a key role in CSK’s thumping 45-run victory over Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Monday (April 19) in Mumbai.
Moeen scored 26 off 20 balls in CSK’s 188/9 before registering the bowling figures of 3 for 7 in his three overs.
"He is adding an all-round aspect to our game which we lacked last year. His contribution was just what we were looking for. We are absolutely happy with the way he has started," Fleming said at the post-match press conference.
The head coach added his team has not played "a good 20 overs with the bat" yet but still getting high scores.
"I'm really excited about the way we are playing. The long resource we have, we're using and we are pushing opposition hard. So we are playing a positive brand throughout."
While batting at No. 5, MS Dhoni scored 18 off 17 balls and Fleming feels the CSK skipper would get better as he spends more time in the middle.
"Yes, his form is restoring, every time he gets some balls in the middle he's going to get better and better," Fleming said.
"There will be opportunities where we would probably look to throw MS Dhoni up as with (Ravindra) Jadeja and others."
According to Fleming, Super Kings are facing the challenge of managing the batting order with "many resources" in their ranks.
"At the moment we are just trying to be a solid order and look for simple parts of the game and what the conditions provide us in terms of how we can attack.
"We know we have got a lot of batting and the way we are playing is really encouraging. We haven't put together a perfect innings by any means but the skipper will be a big part of it going forward," he remarked.
The CSK coach backed Ruturaj Gaikwad (10 off 13 balls) to do well in the coming games despite the young opener’s failure in the third successive match.
“Robin Uthappa is waiting and Ruturaj has a little bit of time last year with the way he played. You know our philosophy, we give our players a good run.
"What they want to try and do is that the intent is there, the timing is great. We'll continue to back him. We'll make a decision to change at some point. We discuss it pretty hard but at the moment backing a good young player,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)
