MS Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will meet the Eoin Morgan-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the final of the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) on Friday. Chennai Super Kings will be chasing their fourth IPL title, while the Knight Riders will be aiming to level MS Dhoni's side (3 titles).
Chennai Super Kings have missed the services of Suresh Raina in their last three games as he was forced out with a knee injury. The left-hander has returned to the practice nets ahead of the side's Qualifier 1 game against Delhi Capitals, but Robin Uthappa's brilliant outing (63) against DC means Raina is expected to remain out of XI due to inconsistent form.
Apart from Raina, the CSK have no major injury concerns so far.
CSK squad: Faf du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Robin Uthappa, N Jagadeesan, MS Dhoni (c), Cheteshwar Pujara, Hari Nishanth, Dwayne Bravo, Bhagath Varma, Krishnappa Gowtham, Mitchell Santner, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, Dominic Drakes, Deepak Chahar, Harishankar Reddy, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, KM Asif, Lungi Ngidi, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Shardul Thakur, Jason Behrendorff
IPL 2021 Final: Who will win the toss, Dhoni or Morgan?
A bulk of Kolkata's success in the UAE leg, winning seven out of nine matches, has been around fantastic starts by their openers Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer. Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana have also contributed with vital knocks. On the bowling front, Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine have picked wickets for fun on sluggish wickets. Narine, who picked up a four-fer in the Eliminator to spin out Bangalore, will be hoping for another match-winning show in Sharjah.
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine, Dinesh Karthik(w), Eoin Morgan(c), Shakib Al Hasan, Lockie Ferguson, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakravarthy, Harbhajan Singh, Tim Southee, Andre Russell, Ben Cutting, Karun Nair, Pawan Negi, Kuldeep Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Sheldon Jackson, Sandeep Warrier, Tim Seifert, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Vaibhav Arora
Dubai weather
According to AccuWeather, the weather in Dubai will remain clear throughout the night, with temperatures fluctuating between 34-36 celsius. Dew is expected to play a role towards the later stages of the game. Visibility remains strong at 1.6km. There are no chances of rain.
Pitch Report
Anything above 160 hasn't been easy to chase down this season. Bowlers, with pace variations, often excel in such conditions while slow bowlers have often contained runs in the middle overs.
