Chennai Super Kings (CSK) would be eager to get on that three-win train on which Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals are already there in the 2024 edition of the IPL. The defending champions missed their chance in the last game against the Delhi Capitals where they failed to chase down 191 runs despite an MS Dhoni special at the end and will want to get some points away from home after winning the first two games at Chepauk.
CSK have a tricky opposition and conditions to deal with given 523 runs were scored when a game was played in Hyderabad last time around. Sunrisers Hyderabad's free-flowing batting line-up kept going hard against Mumbai Indians to smash the highest total in the tournament history and expect something similar on Friday, April 5 as well.
Chennai Super Kings will be without one of their leading seamers, Mustafizur Rahman, who began the tournament with a four-wicket haul. Rahman has gone home for his visa application for the USA, where the T20 World Cup will be taking place in June and is likely to return on Monday and could miss the game against the Kolkata Knight Riders too.
In place of Mustafizur, CSK have the option to go with either an Indian seamer in Simarjeet Singh or Shardul Thakur or even a Mukesh Choudhary. Or they could make a straight swap with Maheesh Theekshana with three pacers already in the squad. Or they could go with three overseas players and keep one of Theekshana or Moeen Ali as an impact player option depending upon the match situation.
The rest of the line-up is likely to remain the same for the Super Kings with probably Dhoni coming in one number ahead of Ravindra Jadeja in the batting order. Otherwise, it's a well-oiled unit and if the surface is anywhere close to the one played last Wednesday, it should be a cracking game.
Predicted playing XI for CSK vs SRH: Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Sameer Rizvi, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Matheesha Pathirana, Maheesh Theekshana/Shardul Thakur
