Both teams got what they wanted at the toss in Hyderabad. Chennai Super Kings captain Ruturaj Gaikwad saw a good pitch that should stay the same through the night and chose to bowl. Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Ishan Kishan was happy putting a total on the board.
CSK travelled for the first time with MS Dhoni on board but he will not be playing the game. He wasn’t on the Impact Players bench either.
CSK have lost their first-choice new-ball bowler Khaleel Ahmed to injury and have brought in Mukesh Choudhary to pick up the slack. They have also pressed Matthew Short into service at the cost of Akeal Hosein, potentially hoping that his offspin matches up against Sunrisers Hyderabad’s explosive, left-handed top-three.
Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Kishan will be in action straightaway on a red-soil pitch expected to offer good bounce and an average first-innings total of 198 since IPL 2025. SRH are expected to bring in Sri Lanka left-arm quick Dilshan Madushanka as their Impact Player when it is their turn to bowl.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (c), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora (wk), Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivang Kumar, Praful Hinge, Sakib Hussain, Eshan Malinga
Impact Player options: Dilshan Madushanka, Harshal Patel, Liam Livingstone, R Smaran, Harsh Dubey
Chennai Super Kings: Sanju Samson (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Dewald Brevis, Jamie Overton, Matthew Short, Anshul Kambok, Noor Ahmad, Mukesh Choudhary, Gurjapneet Singh
Impact Player options: Ayush Mhatre, Prashant Veer, Kartik Sharma, Matt Henry, Ramakrishna Ghosh
