The summer has already begun.Still, it is going to be hotter from coming Saturday in a cricketing sense, As the 12th edition of the Indian premier league, Is about to begin.
After giving a fairytale comeback to the IPL by winning their 3rd IPL trophy, and to be more specific a victory on return post suspension, Chennai Super Kings have ensured the power of themselves as well as the IPL itself stays very much alive.
In their quest to become the first team to defend the IPL trophy twice (The first instance being in 2010&2011), CSK will begin their journey At home, After the last edition saw only one match at Chennai and then marches got shifted to Chennai due to the political turmoil which existed then.
The first match for CSK itself happens to be a high octane clash, As they square up against RCB, A team despite all the hype, haven't won the IPL yet.
RCB has been in the final thrice (2009,2011,2016 ) and in two instances out of the three, The team has been in the losing side in narrow margin in terms of runs (Lost to Deccan Chargers by 6 runs in 2009 and by 8 runs against Sunrises in 2016.
Out of the 23 matches between these teams thus far, CSK has the upper hand by winning 15 matches.RCB has won 7 matches, While a match at Bangalore in 2012 didn't have a result.
In Chennai, Out of the 7 instances that saw these two teams clash, CSK has emerged victorious six times, Including the final of the 2011 edition in which the Men in yellow defended 205/5 with ease and went on to win the match by 58 runs and defend the title.
While CSK has retained their core (23 players) from the last edition , The South African trio of Faf Du Plessis, Lungi Ngidi and Imran Tahir will be unavailable till after the opening match
Chennai Super Kings Probable Playing 11
Shane Watson, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Sam Billings, MS Dhoni, Dwayne Bravo, David Willey, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur
Key Players : Shane Watson ,The catalyst of Last year's CSK triumph as he scored a century (57 balls 117*) when the team needed 179 to win, Is all in readiness for the hunt this year too, As he would be in the lion's den after a formidable season in the Pakistan super league, Wherein he represents team Quetta Gladiators .
In Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni, meanwhile, Chennai boasts two legends of the IPL. Dhoni’s batting was a key part of Chennai’s two victories against Royal Challengers Bangalore in last season’s tournament
Ambati Rayudu, Who much to the surprise of the CSK fans and cricket enthusiasts, Was promoted as an opener in the last edition and emerged as one of the leading run scorers of the season with 602 runs in 16 innings, Including 3 fifties and a century.
With the ball, Shardul Thakur led the way with 16 wickets from 13 matches. Dwayne Bravo took 14 from 16 meanwhile, and the West Indian all-rounder has since gone on to help Melbourne Stars to the BBL final and Quetta Gladiators to the PSL final. He has 477 wickets from 437 T20 appearances in total.
Kedhar Jadhav, Who missed the whole season last year except the opening fixture, Is expected to fulfill the role of a partnership builder with the bat and partnership breaker with the ball.
As far as the team form is concerned, CSK won 9 of their 14 matches in the group stage and got placed second in the league table next to SRH, The team they defeated in the final.
In the RCB camp, New signing Marcus Stoinis and retained compatriot Nathan Coulter-Nile will miss the start of the IPL as they are with the Australian ODI squad playing Pakistan in the UAE. Royal Challengers Bangalore have made several changes to their squad this season, with Quinton de Kock sold and Chris Woakes and Brendon McCullum among those released.
Shivam Dube was their most expensive purchase in the IPL 2019 auction, while Shimron Hetmyer, Heinrich Klaasen and Akshdeep Nath are also among the players purchased. Shimron Heitmeyer is expected to display shades of Chris Gayle in his approach towards batting, Much needed for the fortunes of RCB.
Having an In form Batsman in Captain Kohli, A legendary overseas icon and a Globalstar T20 icon in AB De Villers, RCB would rely on their batting yet again, While the presence of All rounder Marcus Stoinis, Is much anticipated.
With the ball, Umesh Yadav was one of four bowlers to reach 20 wickets last season – doing so in 14 matches with an economy rate of 7.86 runs per over. Yuzvendra Chahal was even more economical, meanwhile, as he claimed 12 wickets. The latter will want to send a statement to the Indian selectors, after playing just one of the five matches against Australia.
As far as the team form is concerned, It was a heavy bumpy ride for RCB has the team won just three out of the first ten league matches in the last edition.Even after winning the next three matches in succession, RCB had to miss out on a spot in the Semi-Finals , As Rajasthan Royals played spoilsport in RCB's hopes by defeating them in the final league match of RCB, Which eventually meant, RCB finished two points behind RR.
Royal Challengers Bangalore Probable Playing 11
Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel, AB de Villiers, Shimron Hetmyer, Akshdeep Nath, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
Team Form in Last Five Matches (most recent first)
CSK: W W W L W
RCB: L W W W L
On the whole, The match promises to be a cracker wherein, CSK would look to recreate the frenzy of last year by starting the tournament with a victory.RCB would look to stop this from happening, Which would only be the best way to start erasing the misfortunes they had to endure in the last season, Or as far as the past eleven editions as a whole.
All the very best boys :)
- Kumaran Kumanan