Defending champions Chennai Super Kings who will be facing Royal Challengers Bangalore in the opening fixture of VIVO IPL 2019, has won the toss and decided to put its bowling skills to test at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Chennai:
While CSK is a three-time champion, the Bengaluru franchise is probably the biggest underachiever despite boasting of some of the best names in its squad.
The outcome of today's game will depend on which team bowls better and holds its nerve as both side have players who can turn a match on its head in a jiffy.
CSK's core team is the oldest in the tournament -- 37-year-olds Dhoni and Shane Watson, 35-year-old Dwayne Bravo, 34-year-old Faf du Plessis, 33-year-olds Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav, soon-to-be 32 Suresh Raina.
For Virat Kohli, it couldn't be a bigger statement if his young side could start off with a bang at Mahendra Singh Dhoni's 'spritual home', a task which will be easier said than done.
CSK have a 34-14 win-loss record in IPL matches at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. RCB have won only two of their 8 matches at the venue.
Head to Head
Matches – 22, CSK Won – 14, RCB Won – 7, No Result – 1
Squads
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (captain & WK), Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Murali Vijay, Kedar Jadhav, Sam Billings, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Shorey, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Rituraj Gaikwad, Dwayne Bravo, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir, Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Mohit Sharma, K M Asif, David Willey, Deepak Chahar, N Jagadeesan (wk).
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (captain), AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel (WK), Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Shivam Dube, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Washington Sundar, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Heinrich Klaasen (WK), Moeen Ali, Colin de Grandhomme, Pawan Negi, Tim Southee, Akshdeep Nath, Milind Kumar, Devdutt Padikkal, Gurkeerat Singh, Prayas Ray Barman, Kulwant Kejroliya, Navdeep Saini, Himmat Singh.