Bengaluru: While Chennai Super Kings looks to conquer the Royal Challengers Bangalore in their away game, the team banks on its skipper MS Dhoni who has a knee niggle to join them in the field. Word around is that the Chennai captain will taken the field as he did in the previous four games. He was also spotted practising in the net on Sunday.
The Southern derby to be played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium comes at a time when both vie to gather momentum after their win and loss in the last match. The knee trouble of Dhoni received spotlight after he was seen slightly limping right after the loss against Rajasthan Royals as could not pull off the last ball finish. He almost saw the team through.
In the tournament, Dhoni led the team in all the four games CSK played so far despite the injury. CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan said he expects the skipper to lead against RCB. "I don't think he will miss the game but we will have to wait and see till evening," PTI quoted Viswanthan as saying.
The CSK batting coach Michael Hussey concurred with the CEO on Dhoni's participation in the Monday match. According to Hussey, Dhoni has been tackling with the injury for some time. He said that Dhoni has been managing it as much as he could. He has been ok so far.
Dhoni who comes out to bat has been making his team's batting unit count on him. Batters - openers Ruturaj Gaikward and Devon Conway- and Ajinkya Rahane who walks in at one-down are playing in rhythm while the rest of the middle-order appear to be in discord. Ambati Rayudu, Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja are yet to find their tune.
There's not much of the arsenal left in the bowling wing which remains crippled with injures. Deepak Chahar was the first to go down for an injury. Sisanda Magala joined in the list and was adviced two weeks time for recuperation. The team's all-rounder Ben Stokes who is struggling with fitness issues is likely to get ready by April end.
RCB which tasted its second victory in the tournament after two consecutive losses also looks forward to maintain the winning momentum going in their home game. In the batting department, Virat Kohli who is in form will look forward to collect boundaries from his off-side play to unsettle CSK bowling unit. Home team skipper Faf du Plessis will join Kohli to destroy the bowlers.
Then comes the discord. More like the CSK - the middle-order batting woes plague Bangalore as well. While Glenn Maxwell has been singing, the likes of Shahbaz Ahmed and Mahipal Lomror are yet to strike sweet chords. Dinesh Karthik who shone in the last season as a finisher is yet to get his break in the current Indian Premier League season.
Mohammed Siraj will lead the bowling attack. He cast a spell on Delhi Capitals on Saturday afternoon at the same at home venue. Others joined ranks with him in the attack, helped the team to stop Capitals 23 runs short of the target. The team will also look up to the death overs specialist Harshal Patel gets his groove after having already played.
Squad-Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c & wk), Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Sisanda Magala, Shivam Dube, Dwaine Pretorius, Ahay Mandal, Nishant Sindhu, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Mitchell Santner, Subharnshu Senapati, Simarjeet Singh, Matheesa Pathirana, Mahesh Theekshana, Bhagath Verma, Prashant Solanki, Shaikh Rasheed and Tushar Deshpande.
Squad-Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Mohammad Siraj, Harshal Patel, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Anuj Rawat, Akash Deep, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Suyash Prabhudesai, Karn Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, David Willey, Wayne Parnell, Himanshu Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Sonu Yadav and Michael Bracewell.
Match starts at 7.30 pm. (with PTI inputs)
