Chennai Super Kings have so far failed to display the stuff that won them the IPL last season, and new skipper Ravindra Jadeja must seek improvement on multiple fronts against Punjab Kings when they meet at the Brabourne stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
CSK's title defence began on a disappointing note. After going down to Kolkata Knight Riders in the tournament opener, they lost to new entrants Lucknow Super Giants.
While the batting unit failed to fire in the opening game, heavy dew made life difficult for the bowlers and they failed to defend a target in excess of 200 runs in the next.
The toss is already playing a significant role in the outcome of matches. With the second innings' dew factor in mind, teams are opting to chase and CSK will hope to be better-prepared to bowl with the wet ball.
“Dew will be the vital part in this edition. If you win the toss, you will look to bowl first. There was a lot of dew, the ball was not sticking to the hands, will have to practice with the wet ball,” Jadeja said after losing to Lucknow Super Giants.
The CSK bowling attack is also feeling the absence of pacers Deepak Chahar, Adam Milne and death-overs specialist Chris Jordan.
They were forced to bowl all-rounder Shivam Dube in the penultimate over against Lucknow and it cost them 25 runs and the match.
The CSK bowlers need to tighten things up to keep the opposition batters in check. Tushar Desphande and rookie Mukesh Choudhary struggled against LSG and will have their task cut out against a strong Punjab line-up, especially at the Cricket Club of India's Brabourne stadium, where bowling hasn't been easy.
Dwayne Bravo was their standout performer in both matches, but needs support from others.
Skipper Jadeja hasn’t been his usual self and needs to pull up his socks. After failing in the opening game, Chennai's batting clicked against Lucknow. A vintage Robin Uthappa, a clinical Mooen Ali and an equally hard-hitting Dube will be more than keen to repeat their performances.
Ruturaj Gaikwad, the last edition's leading run-scorer, needs to get runs under his belt. Mahendra Singh Dhoni can be expected to do the job in the middle-overs and play the role of finisher.
Punjab Kings, on the other hand, have quite a few big hitters in their ranks, but they faltered against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Smarting from a six-wicket defeat, they will be eager to return to winning ways and much will depend on their batters.
With Mayank Agarwal, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa at the top, Punjab can dominate the opposition attack.
Odean Smith and Shahrukh Khan are also known to tonk the ball and need to play the finisher's role on a more consistent basis.
Punjab, who added Kagiso Rabada to their attack, came up short against Andre Russell. They quickly need to regroup, forget the hammering and bowl in the right areas.
The role of the two spinners, Rahul Chahar and Harpreet Brar, becomes crucial and could be a factor in deciding the outcome of the game.
Teams (from):
Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja (captain), Moeen Ali, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Ambati Rayadu, Robin Uthappa, Mitchell Santner, Chris Jordan, Adam Milne, Devon Conway, Shivam Dube, Dwaine Pretorius, Maheesh Theekshana, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Tushar Deshpande, KM Asif, C Hari Nishaanth, N Jagadeesan, Subranshu Senapati, K Bhagath Verma, Prashant Solanki, Simarjeet Singh, Mukesh Choudhary.
Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar, Shahrukh Khan, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Ishan Porel, Liam Livingstone, Odean Smith, Sandeep Sharma, Raj Angad Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Prerak Mankad, Vaibhav Arora, Writtick Chatterjee, Baltej Dhanda, Ansh Patel, Nathan Ellis, Atharva Taide, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Benny Howell.
Match starts: 7.30 PM.
