CSK and Punjab Kings look to bounce back from heavy defeats

Big Picture – Can the Kings storm CSK’s fortress?

While CSK were on a three-match winning streak before that defeat, Punjab have not been able to string together two victories since their first two games. This is the first meeting between these sides this season, and CSK start favourites in their home fortress.

While Chepauk has been a high-scoring venue this season, MS Dhoni banks on his spinners for control, and the Kings haven’t had a terrific record against spin since last season. Their batters have the lowest average (20.07) and strike rate (116.76) against spin. Their two most experienced batters, Shikhar Dhawan and Liam Livingstone, do not go hard against spin: they strike at around 123 against spinners in the IPL.

The Kings also have a pace-heavy attack, unlike CSK, which may not be best suited to Chepauk, and they will hope that their world-class attack of Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh and Sam Curran can rise above the conditions. Rahul Chahal, their lead spinner, has taken only two wickets this season, and their other spin-bowling options are Harpreet Brar, Sikandar Raza and Livingstone.

CSK are in the top half of the table and the Kings are in the bottom half, but only two points separate the sides after eight games.

Form Guide

Chennai Super Kings LWWWL (last five matches, most recent first) Punjab Kings LWLWL

Team News – CSK continue to wait on Stokes, Chahar

The news from the CSK camp is that Ben Stokes and Deepak Chahar are not yet fit enough to play. Stokes has played only two games this season, while Chahar has played three.

Possible XIs and Impact Player

CSK have not made drastic changes so far. Even though their Impact Player Ambati Rayudu has failed to get going this season, they are likely to stick to their same XII.

Likely XII: 1 Devon Conway, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Shivam Dube 6 Ambati Rayudu 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 MS Dhoni (capt. & wk), 9 Matheesha Pathirana, 10 Tushar Deshpande, 11 Maheesh Theekshana, 12 Akash Singh

Kings are likely to bring back left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar in place of seamer Gurnoor Brar.

Likely XII: 1 Shikhar Dhawan (capt.), 2 Prabhsimran Singh, 3Atharva Taide, 4 Sikandar Raza, 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Sam Curran, 7 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 8 Shahrukh Khan, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Rahul Chahar, 11 Harpreet Brar, 11 Arshdeep Singh.

Pitch and conditions

Humidity aside, partly cloudy conditions and some rain is forecast for Chennai.

Stats that matter

Poll

Sruthi Ravindranath is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo