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CSK preparing to handle the pressure

Venkatesh Prasad

It's great to be in South Africa for the Champions League and there's a real buzz within the Chennai Super Kings squad.

As a unit, we know that there's a bit of added pressure on us, the defending Indian Premier League champion.

It's not just a matter of fans' expectations — which is always huge thanks to the wonderful support base we have in Chennai — but also a question of maintaining the high standards we have set.

As individuals and as a group we need to handle this pressure smartly, and this is something we have talked about. The first step is to acknowledge that though winning the IPL title was an important achievement, the challenge before us is a subtly different one.

Challenge

For one thing, we knew the conditions and the opposition really well in the IPL, but have to deal with the unknown in South Africa. You have the best participating and it becomes that much more important to play to our strengths and execute our core skills well.

The other thing that we can't ignore is the fact that it has been five months or so since we played as a team. The State teams in the fray have an advantage in that they have been playing together for an extended period of time.

Regroup fast

With that in mind, it becomes crucially important, not just for CSK but for the other IPL teams as well, to regroup quickly. We're fortunate that most of our players are internationals and have experience at the highest level. But it's important to come together and, in a sense, get to know one another again.

As the Indian team was playing till the end of last month, it's unrealistic to have expected the players to join the CSK squad any earlier. So the crucial thing is how our players complement each other and work as a team.

We've had a couple of strong practice sessions and matches against the Dolphins —we won one of those matches and lost the other off the last ball.

It's now a matter of working out plans and figuring out which players to use in what role. In that sense there's a bit of a challenge for the coaching staff. We have four or five days to quickly adapt and get things together, but given the quality in this squad we're confident that we can get things right.

— Hawkeye Communications/Chivach Sports

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