Chennai, April 8: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad won the toss and elected to bowl first against Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match on Monday.
CSK and KKR are locking horns with each other in the 22nd encounter of the IPL 2024 at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium. The Kolkata-based franchise enters this game after winning all three matches in the tournament so far and CSK, the defending champions, have seen two straight losses against DC and SRH.
Both team have announced their squad.
KKR XI:
PD Salt†, VR Iyer, SS Iyer*, SP Narine, A Raghuvanshi, AD Russell, RK Singh, Ramandeep Singh, MA Starc, VG Arora, CV Varun
CSK XI:
RD Gaikwad*, R Ravindra, AM Rahane, Sameer Rizvi, DJ Mitchell, RA Jadeja, MS Dhoni†, SN Thakur, Mustafizur Rahman, TU Deshpande, M Theekshana
After winning the toss, what both captains said:
Rutural Gaikwad: “Good toss to win, looks quite humid. We will bowl first. We have confidence. We have lost by a few runs margin but it hasn’t dented our confidence. We have had some forced changes too. Definitely trying to win. (Against KKR) They are playing good brand of cricket but we would like to focus on ourselves, do simple things right. Pathirana is not available, Deepak Chahar has a niggle. So we have Shardul back, Mustafizur back, and Rizvi.”
Shreyas Iyer : “We would’ve bowled first too. The approach and attitude has impressed me. The way we have adapted and played fearless cricket…pure bliss. (KKR’s poor record at Chepauk) It is history. That was completely different. Team has also changed. Now our character will decide how we play here. If we complicate, we will struggle. Our focus is on being in the present. Same team.”
