Match details
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)
Chennai, 20:00 IST (1430 GMT)
Big Picture: Can RCB break Chennai’s stranglehold?
But right now, during this IPL, du Plessis has shed his second yellow skin for the red and blue of Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Once a crowd favorite in Chepauk, he will play his first game as RCB captain in Chennai on Friday. However, his counterpart will not be the man he expected to face.
Chahal is now with Rajasthan Royals, while Moeen could line up against RCB on Friday along with three other spinners – Maheesh Theekshana, Ravindra Jadeja and part-timer Rachin Ravindra – on another slow pitch. In contrast, RCB lack a world-class spinner in their ranks: their options are Mayank Dagar (left-arm spinner), Himanshu Sharma (mystery spin), Karn Sharma (legspin) and Swapnil Singh (left-arm spinner). . Looks like RCB have put all their eggs in the batting basket for both home and away matches this season.
Team news: Dhoni and Kohli are back
Toss and Impact Player Strategy
Chennai Super Kings
Probable batsman-first XI: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 2 Rachin Ravindra, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 MS Dhoni (wk), 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Deepak Chahar, 1 Theekshana
Possible bowl-first XI: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 2 Rachin Ravindra, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 MS Dhoni (wk), 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 / Tushar Deshpande
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
One of Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror or Suyash Prabhudessai can be picked to extend RCB’s batting if he bats first, to be replaced by a spinner – Himanshu or Karn – in the second innings. Or conversely.
Probable batsman-first XI: 1 Faf du Plessis (captain), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rajat Patidar, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Cameron Green, 6 Anuj Rawat/Mahipal Lomror/Suyash Prabhudessai, 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 Alzarri Josephgar, 9 Mayank 10 Akash Deep/Vyshak Vijaykumar, 11 Mohammed Siraj
Possible bowl-first XI: 1 Faf du Plessis (captain), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rajat Patidar, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Cameron Green, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Alzarri Joseph, 8 Mayank Dagar, 9 Akash Deep/Vyshak Vijaykumar, 10 Sharma Himans /Karn Sharma, 11 Mohammed Siraj
Statistics that matter
Step and conditions
The big question
If du Plessis, Maxwell and Green start for RCB, who should they pick as the fourth overseas player?
10.8K votes
Quotation marks
“I had the pleasure of working with Rachin from the New Zealand team last year in the UK. And watching him operate then, I had no doubt he would be a good fit. He is very keen to learn. It is very early in his international career but with every obstacle, it climbs quite well.”
CSK coach Stephen Fleming in Rachin Ravindra
“He is a proven international performer and a proven IPL performer. He has pace and bounce at a good release height. There is a lot to like there and so are the other fast bowlers overseas. Faf knows Alzarri well [having worked with him at the CPL with Andy Flower]. So that’s why it was a key target for us in the auction.”
RCB Director of Cricket Mo Bobat to Alzarri Joseph
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo