Madurai takes a cue from Rising Pune Supergiant

Madurai’s Team Director, Dhaya Alagiri felt there was no harm in following the footsteps of the IPL team. “Yes, Pune gave us the idea. It had changed their fortunes a bit and we also thought why shouldn’t we try our luck too,” he said.

Not relying entirely on a name change, Alagiri said having local boy Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan as the coach comes as a shot in the arm for the franchise. “Vidyut was one of the very few players who could adapt to the T20 format from the four-day format. I am sure his experience in adaptability will go a long way in helping our team go the distance this year,” he added. 

The team coach said the focus for this year’s draft was on the replacements. “We had our strategy in place. One area we lost out on last year, was with having replacement players of calibre. That’s why we had to release a lot of players. We now have a better idea of what we want and how to go about,” Vidyut explained. 

The former Chennai Super Kings player said the pressure to deliver is a huge responsibility. “We have a huge challenge ahead of us and it is all about how quickly we adapt to them. The nature and the demands of the game is adaptability. I am not here to teach them how to bat in the powerplay or bowl at the death, it is going to be a strategy based learning and I am looking to relishing the opportunity,” Vidyut noted.