IPL 2026 Stephen Fleming: Chennai Super Kings had to face defeat while playing against Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2026. After this defeat, Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming has said that Ruturaj Gaikwad needs to improve his captaincy. After his statement it became clear that CSK is losing this season because of captain Rituraj Gaikwad.

The 63rd match of IPL was between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings. In this match, Chennai won the toss and played an innings of 180 runs. But Hyderabad achieved such a small target in just 1 over. Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming looked very disappointed after the defeat in this match. After the match was over, Fleming expressed his views on the team’s performance. According to Fleming, Captain Gaikwad still needs a lot of improvement. CSK’s hopes of reaching the IPL playoffs now appear to be fading.

Fleming has confidence in Ruturaj amid playoff hopes

Chennai Super Kings has now reached a do or die situation. The team will have to win its last league match against Gujarat Titans on Thursday at any cost. However, victory alone will not be enough, because CSK will have to depend on the results of other teams to reach the playoffs. ‘Ruturaj is going through a phase of change’.

Fleming said, ‘Ruturaj is going through a phase of change. He has taken over the command from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, one of the best captains in the cricket world. So it will take some time. He further said, ‘He is playing his role well and there is a lot of respect for him among the players also. He is continuously learning and implementing them well. Therefore, there is no doubt that he will prove to be an excellent captain of the franchise in the future.

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Fleming happy with comeback after bad start

Ruturaj Gaikwad has not been able to leave much impact with the bat this season. He has scored only two half-centuries in 13 matches and his average has been 29. Despite this, the team management continues to have faith in him. Fleming said, ‘We made a lot of changes in the team and we knew from the beginning of the season that we were a little behind compared to other teams.

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It would have been great to start well, but we had a bad start. Later we made a good comeback which is really satisfying. Apart from this, Fleming also admitted that despite not being able to take the field due to calf injury, the presence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the dugout remains a constant inspiration for the team.