Bravo is a mentor to the youngsters, says CSK bowling coach Eric Simmons

Chennai Super Kings appointed Eric Simons as the bowling coach before the commencement of the tournament and the South African clearly has a lot of things to work on. Although their batting department is getting them over the line on most occasions, their bowling department needs to buck up and start contributing.

Ahead of Chennai’s massive clash against Mumbai Indians, Simons spoke to the media and heaped praises on their senior player Dwayne Bravo. Bravo has been a brilliant servant to the franchise and was a part of the title-winning side on two occasions. Simons said that he is a mentor to all the young bowlers in the team.

“Bravo is massively important from two perspectives. He is an incredibly experienced cricketer. His ability to control in those middle overs, when we need some control, bowl to his field, is wonderful to watch,” Simons said.

“The number of balls he bowls that go down the ground for one or to the square for one he exactly knows whats going to happen is hugely important. And then the third component is the amount of mentorship he does for our bowlers. He does a lot of talking, lot of advising,” he added.

Bowlers should improve their lines and lengths

Talking about their bowling unit, he said that they have to work hard on the lines and lengths they are bowling. He is keen to make his bowlers work hard and improve so that the batters are not having a mountain to climb.

“There are certain lengths we would like to improve on, lines we would like to improve on and work on them all the time but we also very aware of the fact that this is a long tournament and we are not even near the halfway mark yet. And I feel, we are improving but we would like to give our batsmen less to chase,” the former Indian bowling coach explained.

He also spoke skipper MS Dhoni’s innings against the Royal Challengers, which helped their side pull off a stunning run chase. He complimented the way he reads the games and the way he targets his bowlers.

“MS might look unorthodox but he is very effective, that’s the way he plays. He reads the game. He senses where the game changes. Against the RCB the other night, it was all about reading the game, understanding who were their key bowlers and who is going to target at the back end and that’s what MS is about,” the bowling coach said.

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