The Indian Premier League (IPL) & cricket carnival is back again. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will lock horns with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to kick start the 15th edition of the IPL from where the previous season ended.
The inaugural will take place on Saturday as the defending champions will start their campaign under their new leader Ravindra Jadeja. MS Dhoni unexpectedly stepped down as captain and will continue to play for Chennai Super Kings as a player, leaving Ravindra Jadeja with big shoes to fill. Moeen Ali, an overseas star, arrived on Thursday and will miss the opening. Ruturaj Gaikwad, who won the Orange last year, will try to continue his winning streak this year.
On the other side of the 22-yards we have the runner-ups of IPL 2021 Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). In the mega auction, KKR took a different approach and purchased interesting players. Captaincy’s responsibilities have been given to Mumbai’s Shreyas Iyer. Along with Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane is expected to open. They have a 1-4 win-loss record versus CSK in the last five encounters and they will be looking to narrow the gap.
CSK vs KKR – Match Details
Match no. 1
Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Date & Time: March 26th at 7:30 PM IST and local time
Live Streaming: Star Sports Network and Disney+Hotstar
Pitch Report
Wankhede Stadium has played host to a number of memorable matches in the past. On this surface, hitters have historically looked more at ease and have faced less obstacles. The middle overs will be dominated by spinners. It’s not simple to keep the score down here, so bowling first is a good idea.
Team News
Chennai Super Kings
Deepak Chahar, the Super Kings’ pace bowler, is expected to miss the majority of the IPL 2022 season, if not all of it, due to a quadriceps injury.
Meanwhile, Moeen Ali who just landed in India on 24th March due to a delay in Visa clearance will miss the opening match. Moreover, Dwaine Pretorius will also miss the 1st clash of the new campaign as he just finished the ODI series against Bangladesh. Thus, both Moeen and Pretorius will go under a 3 days quarantine.
Kolkata Knight Riders
With Alex Hales withdrawing from the IPL due to bubble fatigue, Australia’s limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch has an opportunity to play. However, Finch will be busy with international duties hence will miss out on the initial 10 days of the campaign.
While Pat Cummins will fly back to attend Shane Warne’s memorial. Thus, he too will join the camp alongside his skipper Finch
Predicted XI
Chennai Super Kings : Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja (c), MS Dhoni (wk), Shivam Dube, Dwayne Bravo, Tushar Deshpande, Chris Jordan / Maheesh Theekshana, Adam Milne.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer (c), Sam Billings (wk), Andre Russell, Mohammad Nabi / Tim Southee, Sunil Narine, Shivam Mavi, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy.
