Will spinners trouble Virat Kohli? Photo: BCCI
The last time Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) defeated Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Chepauk, the Yellow Army hadn't won an IPL title. CSK have won 5 IPL titles since then while RCB have lost 3 IPL finals. It was in the inaugural season when RCB managed to register their only win at the MA Chidambaram Stadium so far.
RCB, who defeated CSK in their last league stage match of IPL 2024, will take inspiration from that victory to end their dry run in Chennai. All eyes will be on the pitch which will be used for the all-important game.
Spinners dominated the proceedings in CSK's first game of the season against Mumbai Indians (MI). Noor Ahmad shone with the ball and took a four-fer. R Ashwin scalped one wicket upon his return to CSK. MI's Vignesh Puthur stunned one and all, including MS Dhoni, with his spin bowling. He scalped 3 wickets.
The Chennai track is once again expected to assist spinners, which could be bad news for Virat Kohli and other RCB batters. CSK is one of the teams which makes the utmost use of the home advantage and the visiting batters should brace for a tough time on the spinning tracks.
CSK have some of the best batters against spin and it won't be a big challenge for them to negate the threat that the visiting spinners possess.
Apart from Virat, all eyes will also be on MS Dhoni. He only played two balls against MI and didn't score a run. Rachin Ravindra finished the game with a six.
The team winning the toss might opt to bowl first. Teams opting to bowl first have won 4 out of the past 5 matches at this venue.
Squads:
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (Captain), Rachin Ravindra, MS Dhoni, Rahul Tripathi, Deepak Hooda, Shivam Dube, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Nathan Ellis, Khaleel Ahmed, Vijay Shankar, Jamie Overton, Shreyas Gopal, Devon Conway, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Mukesh Choudhary, Anshul Kamboj, Matheesha Pathirana, Gurjapneet Singh, Shaik Rasheed, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Andre Siddarth C, Vansh Bedi
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rajat Patidar (Captain), Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma, Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Rasikh Dar Salam, Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Abhinandan Singh, Manoj Bhandage, Romario Shepherd, Swapnil Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Lungi Ngidi, Nuwan Thushara, Jacob Bethell, Mohit Rathee, Swastik Chikara
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