Gujarat Titans (GT) captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and chose to bowl first in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 qualifier against Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Pandya made just one change to the playing XI. He replaced left-arm pacer Yash Dayal with Darshan Nalkande. Nalkande has not played a single game in the ongoing season. Last year, he played two games and conceded runs at an economy rate of 11.42 runs per over. His best bowling figures were 2/37.
“We heard dew will come, so we want to know what exactly to chase down. We were told to relax after getting into the top-2, but we didn't want, want to stay focussed and play good cricket. We are a smart team, we don't play only one way, we make sure to get the best out of the wicket and have adapted. Darshan Nalkande comes in place of Yash Dayal,” Pandya said after winning the toss.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, once again, did not make any change to his playing XI.
“We wanted to bowl first, reason being they're an excellent chasing side. We've exploited the conditions slightly better, in a tournament like this, the boys have adapted really well. It's important to back your strengths, the confidence level should be high. They've been able to do that and that's why we have done well. There was a lot of dew in the last game, but with breeze around, we can't say about it tonight, but it does look dry. We're playing the same team,” Dhoni said at the coin toss.
GT vs CSK Head-to-head
GT are yet to lose their first match against four-time IPL champions. They have faced CSK in three games and won all of them. They faced each other in IPL 2023 campaign opener where GT won by five wickets despite Ruturaj Gaikwad's 92-run knock.
GT Playing XI: Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Hardik Pandya(c), Dasun Shanaka, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Darshan Nalkande, Mohit Sharma, Noor Ahmad, Mohammed Shami
CSK Playing XI: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w/c), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana
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