The stand-in skipper Sam Curran won the toss as Punjab Kings elected to bowl first against Chennai Super Kings in the 49th match of the IPL 2024 on Wednesday. Punjab Kings field the same playing eleven but Chennai Super Kings made two major changes to their starting eleven with Matheesha Pathirana missing out.
After losing the toss, CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad revealed that Pathirana suffered a niggle and Tushar Deshpande is not feeling well. The star bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur and England's veteran pacer Richard Gleeson came into Chennai's starting eleven as replacements.
"We would have fielded first, but we weren't exactly sure," Ruturaj Gaikwad said after losing the toss. "Always tough defending here with a lot of dew, but the fact that we won by 78 runs shows a lot about the team, we'll be missing out on Pathirana and Tushar Deshpande today. We'll have to get there early and make a good score. Every game is important. Pathirana has a slight niggle, Deshpande isn't well, so we've Shardul and Richard Gleeson makes his debut."
Pathirana's absent came as a big blow to Chennai's bowling attack as the young Sri Lankan pacer is enjoying a sensational season with 13 wickets in just six innings so far. Deshpande took four wickets for 27 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the last game and has taken overall ten wickets this season.
Chennai Super Kings Playing XI: Ajinkya Rahane, Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Daryl Mitchell, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (wk), Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Richard Gleeson, Mustafizur Rahman.
Chennai Super Kings Impact Subs: Sameer Rizvi, Mukesh Choudhary, Simarjeet Singh, Shaik Rasheed, Prashant Solanki.
Punjab Kings Playing XI: Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran (c), Rilee Rossouw, Shashank Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ashutosh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh.
Punjab Kings Impact Subs: Prabhsimran Singh, Liam Livingstone, Rishi Dhawan, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Harpreet Singh Bhatia.
