Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni
Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni won the toss and opted to bat first against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Explaining his choice, Dhoni said that heat will be a huge factor and hence wicket will tend to slow down. However, six out of nine previous teams have won chasing at the Wankhede.
"Heat is a factor and chances the wicket will slow down, so that's why we're batting first. It's not about keeping anyone happy, all of us have got some kind of batting, you'll always complain if you have enough batting or not but you can't really manage that. You can try and give exposure in situations but you can't guarantee that. Managing yourself is key, it's a day game so it'll be different from the games we've played with dew. Have to figure out lengths quickly. The spinners may come in to it a lot more. Moeen is not fit, and Lungi makes way. Bravo and Tahir come in," said Dhoni.
"Happy to be bowling, we've stacked up our bowling accordingly. Richardson misses out and Christian comes back in as finisher. Shahbaz misses out and Saini comes in. We have players to bowl cutters so we wanted someone like Saini to go hard up front. It's easy to look at the table and focus on what others are doing rather than your thing; that's something we've done good so far," said Kohli.
Royal Challengers Bangalore are the only unbeaten side in IPL 2021. They completed their Chennai leg being the only ream to not register a defeat at the Chepauk and then headed to Mumbai where they beat Punjab Kings at the Wankhede three nights earlier.
Chennai Super Kings, on the other hand, lost their opening game this season, but their resurgence thereafter has been the story of the season so far. They won their remaining three to stand second in the points table with the best NRR among all eight teams.
A win tonight for CSK will see them go top of the table while for RCB, a win will help them maintain their dominance atop with an unbeaten run.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers(w), Washington Sundar, Daniel Christian, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Imran Tahir
