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Ruturaj Gaikwad-led Chennai Super Kings is taking on Shreyas Iyer's Kolkata Knight Riders in match 22 of the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, on April 8 (Monday). CSK won the toss and elected to bowl first.
KKR is currently at the number two spot on the points table after three straight wins and will have the opportunity to top the standings once again with a win here. On the other hand, CSK is on a two-match losing skid and would be eyeing to return to the winning ways. They are currently in the number four spot.
Head-to-head
Chennai Super Kings have faced Kolkata Knight Riders in 29 matches with CSK winning 18 of them and KKR coming out victorious on 10 occasions, while one of them ended up in no contest. At Chepauk, both teams have faced each other 10 times with CSK winning 7 and KKR 3.
Captains at Toss
Ruturaj Gaikwad won the toss and elected to bowl first. He announced some big changes like Deepak Chahar missing out due to a niggle and the return of Mustafizur Rahman, Shardul Thakur Sameer Rizvi in the playing XI.
"Good toss to win. It looks humid, expecting dew tonight, so we will bowl first. Hasn't dented our confidence, we have lost by small margins. Everyone is confident in our group, but we have had forced changes. Definitely looking forward to getting a win in this game. They are playing a good brand of cricket, we want to keep things simple and want to focus on ourselves. Pathirana is not available, Mustafizur is back. Deepak has a niggle so he misses out, Shardul comes in and Rizvi comes back," said Gaikwad after winning the toss.
Shreyas Iyer also wanted to bowl first but was confident in his side despite losing the toss. They made no changes in their side as they are on a winning run and would not want to test things.
"We would have bowled first. Think the attitude and approch irrespective of the situation, appreciate that about the players. We have assessed the conditions and adapted well. Everyone has stepped up and played fearless cricket. Everyone is stepping up at the right time. It's (head to head record) history, that was a different team and different situation. Our character is going to define how we are going to play here. We just need to keep things simple, that's better for us. Our focus is on the present. We are sticking to the same team," said Iyer at toss.
CSK vs KKR Playing XIs
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w), Shardul Thakur, Mustafizur Rahman, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana
Impact Subs: Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santne, Nishant Sindhu
Kolkata Knight Riders: Philip Salt(w), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy
Impact Subs: Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sakib Hussain
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