Chennai Super Kings (CSK) pacer Deepak Chahar said that players of his team did not panic despite their coaches Michael Hussey and L. Balaji tested positive for COVID-19 midway during IPL 2021.
Chennai Super Kings were camped in Delhi before IPL 14 was suspended. The franchise organized a charter flight and helped their players to head home.
With players and support staff contracting coronavirus inside the bio-bubbles, the marquee tournament was unanimously postponed by the BCCI. Two of the CSK’s coaches Michael Hussey and Lakshmipati Balaji were among those who were infected by the deadly virus.
Talking about the positive cases in CSK camp, pacer Deepak Chahar said that despite the cases none of the players panicked and handled everything well.
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“Once some reports came positive, the team management told us to isolate. We had tests everyday and reports came negative, so that was a big relief. But none of the players panicked and everyone handled it well,” Deepak Chahar told Sportstar.
Chahar said that no protocol was breached as all players followed the bubble strictly. He added that when players travel from one city to another it is a difficult task.
“No protocol was breached. But obviously, I don’t know what went wrong. It is really difficult to say, because all the players followed the bubble strictly. When you create a bubble from one city to another, it may be a difficult task. But I am not in a position to say, what exactly happened,” he said.
Deepak Chahar said that it was challenging to play IPL during the second wave of COVID-19 but they played to entertain people, which was their biggest motivation.
“It was challenging, but it was also important to have the IPL in these times. There was so much gloom, but at least we could entertain them for a few hours. We were playing for the public and that was the motivation,” he said.
Chahar said that when on the field only focus was on winning the match. He added that team had good momentum and his personal performances were satisfying too.
“When the matches started, there was not much of a scope to think about those things. Once we were on the ground, the only idea was to focus on the game and win matches. The team gained the momentum. I also had some good performances which was satisfying,” he said.
Chahar admitted that initially it was challenging for CSK because they had more spinners in their side, considering their home ground is on Chepauk but it didn’t matter to him and he is happy with his form.
“Initially, it was challenging because our team had more spinners. When a team is formed, you make it keeping Chennai in mind, so yeah…(that was the challenge). But for me, it did not matter much. Even though it was a bit difficult to generate swing with the new ball, I am happy with my form,” he said.
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Deepak Chahar further praised CSK’s batsmen and the depth in the lineup because of which they were consistently able to score big runs.
“Our batting line-up was very strong and for the first time, I could bat at No.11. When you have that depth in the batting line up, batsmen can play freely and that’s the reason we could score big runs consistently,” he concluded.
CSK, who finished seventh last year, made a great comeback this season. With five wins in seven games, Chennai was placed second on the points table and were all set to seal a spot in the playoffs.
(Sport star inputs)
