Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni won the toss and opted to bat against Rajasthan Royals, in his 200th Indian Premier League (IPL) game on Monday, 19 October.
Dhoni has confirmed that all-rounder Dwayne Bravo will not be available for the next few games due to an injury. He named Josh Hazlewood as his replacement which means last season’s purple cap winner Imran Tahir continues to sit out. CSK have also replaced Karn Sharma with Piyush Chawla.
"We will bat first. It is a used wicket and chances are it may slow down as the game progresses," said Dhoni after the toss.
For RR, Ankit Rajpoot has replaced Jaydev Unadkat, who went for an expensive penultimate over that allowed the Bangalore franchise to win on Saturday.
CSK and Rajasthan Royals RR have a chance to jump out of the bottom two of the IPL table as they face each other at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.
Playing XI
Chennai Super Kings: Faf du Plessis, Sam Curran, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(WK/Capt), Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Deepak Chahar, Piyush Chawla, Shardul Thakur, Josh Hazlewood.
Rajasthan Royals: Robin Uthappa, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson (WK), Steven Smith (Capt), Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Ankit Rajpoot, Kartik Tyagi.
Preview
CSK's top order of Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu showed they have regained their touch in recent matches, while Ravindra Jadeja was also quite handy with the bat in their last game against the Delhi Capitals (DC).
However, the form of captain MS Dhoni could be a cause of concern. The veteran wicketkeeper-batsman has not been able match up to the lofty standards he has set over the years with the bat this season. With 3,994 runs from 169 games, Dhoni is also the leading run-scorer for his side.
On the other hand, RR too face similar issues. Their batsmen did well in the last game against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), particularly Steve Smith and Robin Uthappa, who was promoted to the top of the order for that match.
The RR think-tank will, however, hope that Ben Stokes and the out-of-form Sanju Samson, also the highest run-getter for RR with 1,768 runs, will reverse their run of low scores as the league stage enters its home stretch.
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