After winning two matches at the start, Super Kings have lost the last two with big margins – by 20 runs against Delhi Capitals and by six wickets against Sunrisers Hyderabad. On the other hand, Kolkata Knight Riders have won all of their matches so far in IPL 2024.
The Shreyas Iyer-led KKR amassed 272 runs in the last game against Delhi Capitals. All-rounder Sunil Narine provided a quick start to the innings with young batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi scoring a half-century on his IPL debut. Andre Russell and Rinku Singh played crucial cameos at the end to help KKR put 272 runs on the board.
MS Dhoni can be promoted up the batting order as CSK’s run rate in the middle overs has reduced in the last few matches. Shivam Dube is in sublime form but other batters also need to perform to get results in their favour.
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Moeen Ali, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (wk), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana, Shardul Thakur, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Sameer Rizvi, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman, Devon Conway, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Prashant Solanki, Simarjeet Singh, RS Hangargekar, Nishant Sindhu, Aravelly Avanish.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Philip Salt (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Anukul Roy, Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora, Manish Pandey, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Chetan Sakariya, Sherfane Rutherford, Sakib Hussain, Srikar Bharat, Dushmantha Chameera, Allah Ghazanfar, Nitish Rana
As the stage is set for the match between the two strong teams of the IPL 2024, three key player battles are worth looking out for
1. Rachin Ravindra vs Harshit Rana
Rachin Ravindra likes to hit from the word go. When he comes to open the innings with captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, he plays the role of aggressor and likes to take on the bowlers and get the maximum benefit of the powerplay. Harshit Rana has impressed with his pace bowling in the powerplay and the mix-ups in the death overs. He has a good bouncer and can bowl with different paces in an over, which can be lethal for Ravindra. Both young players have a good fighting spirit and that also makes their battle interesting on Monday.
2. Sunil Narine vs Deepak Chahar
Sunil Narine is given the role of pinch-hitting in the powerplay and he displayed a trailer of that in the last match against Delhi Capitals where he made 85 runs off just 39 balls. CSK’s Deepak Chahar can swing the ball both ways and must be ready with a plan to tackle him early in his innings.
3. Shivam Dube vs Varun Chakaravarthy
Shivam Dube has a strike rate against the spinners and he has a designated role of coming in middle overs and tackling spinners. Varun Chakaravarthy, who is known for his mystery spin bowling, could pose a threat to Dube. Both are tall and use their height to their advantage. Dube’s current form makes it interesting to see how he faces Chakaravarthy.