Captaincy has fallen into his lap but Suresh Raina appeared unfazed by the burden of added responsibility. Following the advice of injured skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the left-hander hopes to keep it simple to get the right result.
“No doubt, we are going to miss Dhoni. Leading the team is a big challenge but we have plenty of experience in the dressing room,” said Raina pointing to the presence of Mathew Hayden, Justin Kemp and the coach, Stephen Fleming.
Raina thought the responsibility of leading Chennai Super Kings was only going to improve his batting. He also confirmed that wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel would open the innings on Friday.
Earlier, Delhi’s Daredevils assistant coach Eric Simmons confirmed that Gautam Gambhir was certain to miss the Friday’s owing to a hamstring injury.
Simmons, who refrained from specifying the period of Gambhir’s absence from the IPL, indicated that in the shortest form of the game, one should not read too much into a defeat. He said, “you got to have plan A, B or C. Sometimes certain strategies work, sometimes they don’t. But one has to keep working.”
