‘Learnt a lot from Williamson about playing spin’

AS DARYL Mitchell takes his seat with a filter coffee in a brass dabara set, he appears totally at home in Chennai. “It is the morning shot that I need,” says the Kiwi as he settles down. But, the only thing is, bought at Rs 14 crore at the auction, primarily for his striking abilities against spinners, Mitchell is yet to ascertain himself fully at Chennai Super Kings. After two successive away defeats as Chennai return to their den for their game against Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday, Chennai badly need the free-flowing Mitchell back at his best.

With Ambati Rayudu not around, it didn’t come as a surprise to see CSK go big to acquire Mitchell. A bankable middle-order batsman, at the 50-over World Cup, the 32year-old showed his power-hitting prowess against spinners. Playing mostly straight, he took attacks apart with his clean, crisp hitting. For a batsman, who grew up facing not many spinners in New Zealand, it is fascinating how his batting against the tweakers has evolved in the last three years. “I'm 6'3" and 100 kg, so it's about making sure I use my size, my base and finding ways to put pressure back on the spinners in my own way. We've got a guy called Kane Williamson who's a pretty good player against spin and I've learnt a lot from him.” Mitchell said.

So far in this IPL, batting in the middleorder, Mitchell has tallied only 93 runs and has struggled to find the flow, often coming across as a batsman who is trying too hard. In four innings, he has batted at No 4, 5 and 6, which hasn’t helped his case to settle down either. But, after all, Mitchell has always been a late bloomer.

“I can adapt to different situations and work out ways to keep extending partnerships and also put pressure back on the bowlers. Here at CSK, it's doing that sort of No 4-5 role and managing the middle and getting us positioned to allow the big boys at the end to try and launch it. I'm loving doing different jobs for the team, and it's good fun,” Mitchell said.

While he has definitely had a bit of fun in the middle, Chennai need that to last longer. With MS Dhoni batting low and Ravindra Jadeja’s limitations, it is Mitchell that CSK look up to for providing the impetus in the middle-order. Unlike Ajinkya Rahane and Shivam Dube, Mitchell has the game to take down pacers as well as spinners. Against Kolkata, who have an army of spinners, Mitchell’s match-ups against Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma would come in handy.

“It's just trying to be as present as you can be, in that moment and working out what their threats are to you as a batsman, trying to find ways to put pressure back on them. That's the nature of the game that we play; sometimes it can look ugly, but you get the runs and get the job done and other times it looks beautiful. It's just working out what the surface is doing, what the bowlers are trying to do here. I'll keep trying to find ways to put pressure back on them as well,” Mitchell said.

PTI Daryl Mitchell has tallied only 93 runs batting across the order this season.