The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming has revealed that the reason the CSK management decided to organise a training camp in Surat for three weeks before the start of the IPL was because the conditions in Surat are quite similar to that of Mumbai where most of the matches of IPL 2022 have to be played.
According to Fleming, the surfaces in the Mumbai grounds, particularly at Wankhede, have red soil which means they behave a bit differently to the other Indian surfaces in terms of bounce. Wankhede offers a little bit of extra bounce and also turns a bit.
The ground that the CSK management picked for their pre-season IPL camp has red soil and behaves almost similarly to how the surface at Wankhede behaves. Also, the climate in Surat is not too different to that of Mumbai, as both the venues are not located too far apart from each other.
Stephen Fleming also revealed that while training in Surat, the CSK squad had the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium available to them at all times and they trained there all by themselves, which might not have been the case in Mumbai because a lot of teams were training there already.
Picking our master’s mind 🧠
📹👉https://t.co/fOmoClEaAJ#Yellove #WhistlePodu 🦁💛 @SPFleming7 pic.twitter.com/YmuKNrMAYt— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) March 21, 2022
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Stephen Fleming joined CSK pre-season camp a few days after it started
Stephen Fleming didn’t join the CSK pre-season camp right from the beginning, but CSK’s assistant coaches and the captain MS Dhoni himself was present in the camp from the very first day. The CSK players had plenty of net sessions, match simulations and a couple of warm up games under their belt in Surat before they headed off to Mumbai to start their IPL campaign against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on 26th of March.
Almost all the CSK players have joined the squad already, barring Moeen Ali who will join later today and Dwaine Pretorius who will probably join tomorrow. Deepak Chahar is currently at NCA recovering from his hamstring injury and he is expected to join CSK mid-way through the IPL.
