MS Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik
The blueprint for Chennai Super Kings will remain the same ven as they lose the toss as Kolkata Knight Riders captain Dinesh Karthik has opted to bat first at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday after winning toss. KKR remained changed while CSK made just one change in their playing XI.
"We'll bat first. In the last two games when we batted first we did a good job. We have gone back and see what we can do. We're playing the same XI," Karthik said.
With no changes to the playing XI, KKR are likely to open to Sunil Narine yet again, amid his struggles up the order. He has failed to score even 25 in his last nine innings as an opener in IPL.
Chennai have replaced Karn Sharma with Piyush Chawla implying that the latter won't be playing against his former IPL team.
"We've been chasing all this while anyway. We've had a few bad games and a few good ones, but we're ready to do anything. As the tournament progresses, you adapt to new questions and that is what happened in the last game. He openers' approach was great to see," Dhoni said.
Chennai Super Kings bounced back superbly with a 181-run opening stand between Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis, to shrug off the three-match losing streak they incurred after the opening-game win. Kolkata Knight Riders, on the other hand, had got all their batting order wrong amid rising voices over Karthik's poor captaincy. KKR have so far won two and lost as many in four matches in IPL 2020.
A win for either side would take them to the third spot in the points table, below Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals and above RCB.
