Lucknow Super Giants captain K.L. Rahul with his Chennai Super Kings counterpart Ruturaj Gaikwad.
| Photo Credit: AP
hennai Super Kings will look to regain some momentum in what has been a start-stop campaign when it takes on Lucknow Super Giants in the reverse fixture at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on April 23. The two sides met three days back in Lucknow, where LSG easily prevailed by eight wickets.
Super Kings enters a crucial phase of the tournament with three matches at home over the next eight days, which could determine the chance of making the playoffs. CSK has won all three games in its backyard this year and will want to continue that form to add to its four wins.
However, the defending champion has some big headaches to solve, mainly around its struggles in the PowerPlay with both bat and ball.
Runs have dried up for key top-order batters like Rachin Ravindra and Ajinkya Rahane, and the batting relies heavily on Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shivam Dube. The skipper demoted himself to the number three in the last two matches, and it will be interesting to see if he goes back to open. Similarly, the pacers’ inability to give early breakthroughs will be an area the team needs to address.
Meanwhile, Super Giants had some positives from the previous match. The bowlers set the game up before skipper K.L. Rahul led from the front with a quick-fire half-century alongside Quinton de Kock.
The presence of spinners Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, and M. Siddharth gives the visitors depth in their squad for the conditions in Chepauk as they look to do the double against the five-time champion.
Squads:
Chennai Super Kings: Rachin Ravindra, Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Sameer Rizvi, MS Dhoni (wk), Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Mustafizur Rahman, Matheesha Pathirana, Nishant Sindhu, Moeen Ali, Mitchell Santner, Shaik Rasheed, Aravelly Avanish, Maheesh Theekshana, RS Hangargekar, Simarjeet Singh, Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Solanki, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Richard Gleeson and Deepak Chahar.
Lucknow Super Giants: Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul (c & wk), Deepak Hooda, Ayush Badoni, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Shamar Joseph, Yash Thakur, Manimaran Siddharth, Prerak Mankad, Arshad Khan, Krishnappa Gowtham, Amit Mishra, Kyle Mayers, Ashton Turner, Matt Henry, Naveen-ul-Haq, Devdutt Padikkal, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Mayank Yadav and Arshin Kulkarni.
Match start time: 7.30 PM (IST).
