We’re officially back in the Mahendra Singh Dhoni era as captain of Chennai Super Kings—easily the best news CSK fans have received this season.
But along with the good news comes a big blow: Ruturaj Gaikwad has been ruled out of this year’s IPL due to an elbow injury. This is a major setback for CSK as they’ve lost their most reliable batter, and it’s bound to shake up their batting order.
With this change, Captain Dhoni will have some serious thinking to do, especially with their next match against the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders, who haven’t had the smoothest start to their campaign either.
Let’s dive into the match preview, including the probable playing XI, pitch report, and more.
Sequence:
- Probable 11
- Stats
- Weather
- Pitch
- Prediction
- Where/When/How to watch this match in INDIA
Probable 11 For Both Teams:
CSK:
- Devon Conway
- Rachin Ravindra
- Rahul Tripathi
- Shivam Dube
- Vijay Shankar
- Ravindra Jadeja
- MS Dhoni (C) (WK)
- Ravichandran Ashwin
- Noor Ahmed
- Mukesh Choudhary
- Khaleel Ahmed
IMPACT PLAYER- MATHEESHA PATHIRANA
KKR:
- Quinton De Kock (WK)
- Sunil Narine
- Ajinkhya Rahane (C)
- Venkatesh Iyer
- Angkrish Raghuvanshi
- Rinku Singh
- Andre Russel
- Moeen Ali
- Ramandeep Singh
- Harshit Rana
- Vaibhav Arora
IMPACT PLAYER- VARUN CHAKRAVARTHY
Stats:
| Matches- | 30 |
| CSK Won- | 19 |
| KKR Won- | 10 |
| Tied- | 0 |
| No result- | 1 |
Weather Report:
The weather at the MA Chidambaram Stadium is expected to be cloudy throughout the day—and yes, there’s a heat warning in place, because what’s a match in Chennai without the heat, right?
Temperatures are expected to stay between 30°C and 32°C during the evening. But the good news is that the skies will remain clear, and no rain is expected to interrupt MS Dhoni’s return as captain of the Yellow Army.
Pitch Report:
The Chepauk surface continues to be a bit of a mystery—even for the home team. One thing is clear though: chasing targets has become really difficult here. Out of the three matches played, only one team won while chasing, and that was during the El Clasico between CSK and MI, where CSK chased down 156—but it still took them 19.1 overs.
In the other two matches, CSK lost by 50 runs and 25 runs, showing just how tough chasing can be. So, going by the trend, batting first seems to be the better choice at Chepauk.
Prediction:
Chennai has been struggling, and the only man who can turn things around is MS Dhoni. If CSK want to stay in the playoff race, they need to start playing much better cricket. On the other hand, KKR hasn’t had the best start either, but they’ve still looked more solid than CSK so far.
Even Chepauk, which is usually CSK’s fortress, has been breached twice this season. Right now, KKR looks like the stronger side on paper, and they definitely have the edge over the Men in Yellow in today’s match.
If you want to watch MS Dhoni back as captain of Chennai Super Kings, then tune in to JioHotstar today at 7:30 PM IST for the match. And if you want to catch the pre-match broadcast, make sure to log in by 6:30 PM IST.
Until Next Time!
Thank you.
SlogVlog 