A day after sharing the sudden news of Mahendra Singh Dhoni stepping down and Ruturaj Gaikwad taking over, Chennai Super Kings are ready to take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the opening match of Indian Premier League 2024 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday, March 22. (Full IPL 2024 Coverage | Match Blog)
The title holders have the advantage of knowing their home conditions extremely well and tailoring their strategy accordingly. Time and again, the slow and spin-friendly Chepauk surface has aided CSK's tweakers, and we might see something similar on Friday.
Up against them is a team that has threatened to win the title several times, but failed to ever do so. As the Faf Du Plessis-led RCB eye the elusive trophy, they will surely take heart from the fact that their female counterparts wore the Women's Premier League 2024 crown just days ago.
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Head-To-Head Record In IPL
The Yellow Army have the upper hand, when it comes to the two teams' head-to-head encounters. CSK and RCB have locked horns 31 times in Indian Premier League history, and the former have won 20 of those games. RCB have emerged victorious on 10 occasions, while one match ended with no result.
Of their last five clashes, Chennai have won four and Bengaluru just one. The latest match-up between the two teams was in the previous season, wherein the visiting CSK won a run-fest at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Chasing a target of 227, RCB ended up with 218 runs on the board.
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Head-To-Head Record At Chepauk
The MA Chidambaram Stadium is a veritable fortress for CSK, and their home record against RCB bears proof of that. In eight matches, CSK have lost only one and won the remaining seven against RCB. The last time the two teams played here was in the opening game of IPL 2019, which the hosts had won by seven wickets.
Squads
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Devon Conway, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Rachin Ravindra, Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Mustafizur Rahman, Avanish Rao Aravelly.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Faf Du Plessis (c), Rajat Patidar, Virat Kohli, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Saurav Chauhan, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Cameron Green, Swapnil Singh, Mayank Dagar, Manoj Bhandage, Akash Deep, Alzarri Joseph, Lockie Ferguson, Mohammad Siraj, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Vyshak Vijay Kumar.
