Chennai Super Kings will be bolstered by the return of Ambati Rayudu and Dwayne Bravo as they take on a resurgent Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League on Friday.
Rayudu, who starred in CSK’s victory against Mumbai Indians in the tournament opener, missed out the next two games due to a hamstring injury, while Bravo is yet to play a match since the Caribbean Premier League where he didn’t bowl in the last two games.
“Both Rayudu and Bravo are available for selection,” CSK CEO KS Viswanathan told PTI on Thursday.
CSK and Sunrisers Hyderabad have balanced squads but have had scratchy starts this year, losing two of their first three games.
Kedar Jadhav’s poor form will certainly be a worry for CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni as there isn’t any ready replacement in the middle order for the Maharashtra batsman.
Bravo’s replacement Sam Curran has been one of CSK’s better performers in the first three games with good change-ups in pace and handy hitting at the death.
For Hyderabad, the presence of Kane Williamson in the last game against Delhi Capitals made the middle order look more solid. Both Jonny Bairstow and David Warner also got their share of runs.
For SRH to succeed, they need to find that one dependable big-hitter in the middle order in case the top order fails to fire. Jammu and Kashmir’s Abdul Samad showed promise in the last game and could be given an extended run.
The bowling line-up is pretty even for both teams. While Deepak Chahar, Josh Hazlewood, Curran, Ravindra Jadeja and Piyush Chawla can be more than a handful on slow a Dubai track, SRH have plenty of variety with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan and T Natarajan.
Head-to-head
| Mat | CSK wins | SRH wins | CSK win% | SRH win% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CSK vs SRK | 12 | 9 | 3 | 75% | 25% |
Milestones
MS Dhoni needs 24 runs to complete 4500 IPL runs.
Ambati Rayudu needs 45 runs to complete 1000 IPL runs for CSK.
Manish Pandey requires 69 runs to complete 3000 IPL runs
David Warner needs 55 and 142 runs respectively to complete 500 IPL runs against CSK and 3500 IPL runs overall.
Squads
CSK squad
| Batsmen | Bowlers | All-rounders | Wicketkeepers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruturaj Gaikwad | Lungi Ngidi | Dwayne Bravo | MS Dhoni |
| Faf du Plessis | Deepak Chahar | Ravindra Jadeja | N Jagadeesan |
| Shane Watson | Karn Sharma | Mitchell Santner | |
| Ambati Rayudu | Imran Tahir | Sam Curran | |
| M Vijay | Shardul Thakur | ||
| Kedar Jadhav | Monu Kumar | ||
| KM Asif | |||
| R. Sai Kishore | |||
| Piyush Chawla | |||
| Josh Hazlewood |
SRH squad
| Batsmen | Bowlers | All-rounders | Wicketkeepers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kane Williamson | Rashid Khan | Vijay Shankar | Jonny Bairstow |
| David Warner | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | Mohammad Nabi | Wriddhiman Saha |
| Manish Pandey | Khaleel Ahmed | Abhishek Sharma | Shreevats Goswami |
| Priyam Garg | Sandeep Sharma | Mitchell Marsh | |
| Virat Singh | Siddarth Kaul | Fabian Allen | |
| Billy Stanlake | Sandeep Bavanaka | ||
| T Natarajan | Sanjay Yadav | ||
| Shahbaz Nadeem | Abdul Samad | ||
| Basil Thampi |
Match starts at 1930 IST and will be broadcast on the Star Sports network and Disney+Hotstar
(With PTI and iplt20.com inputs)
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