Despite boasting a world-class Indian spin pool, Stephen Fleming and co jumped right into the Auction board when Kiwi spinner, Mitchell Santner’s name was called up. Whilst his signing looked like a flop one, with the left-arm spinner injured for the 2018 season, his comeback in the 2019 season rekindled the CSK fans’ hopes. 

On a personal note for Santner, it was an experience to share the dressing room with the likes of MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina. Rightly so, the Kiwi spinner admitted that it was an incredible experience to share the dressing room with the CSK skipper. 

“I’ve played against MS a lot, so to share a dressing room with him and talk to him about how he goes about things was awesome. Even guys like Suresh Raina - you watched him from other teams you go with,” The New Zealand spinner told ESPNCricinfo

However, his start in the Yellow jersey was a tough one on a dewy night at Chepauk against Rajasthan Royals. After having landed just a few days before the contest, Santner felt the wrath of the conditions, which were making it tough for the spinners to grip the ball. In his two overs, the left-arm spinner gave away 26 runs before he made amends against the same opposition with his bat later in the competition. 

“It was a challenge (bowling with dew) - we don’t have much of it in New Zealand. I felt like I was bowling at almost my toes and it still came out quite full. But after that we trained, putting some water on the ball, putting them in a bucket, and learnt to deal with it. After that, it wasn’t probably as bad as that,” he further added.

Santner did not shy away from heaping praises on the IPL, which he called as ‘pinnacle’ of all T20 tournaments. The former World No.1 bowler in the shortest format also hailed the quality of cricket on offer in the competition.  

“Yeah, the IPL, I guess, is the pinnacle of all T20 tournaments and I was pretty excited when I was picked up [in 2018]. When I got injured the first year , I was pretty disappointed, but I was given the opportunity last time around to go and experience it. It’s an unbelievable tournament and definitely the best cricket going around in terms of T20 leagues.”