Toss Chennai Super Kings opt to bowl vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru
After losing two successive tosses – and two successive games – Chennai Super Kings captain Ruturaj Gaikwad had the coin landing in his favour against defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Gaikwad opted to bowl on a fresh Bengaluru pitch and said that MS Dhoni, who is nursing a calf injury, is recovering well. CSK were also without Dewald Brevis, who is working his way back from a side injury.
After playing just two overseas players in their previous game against Punjab Kings in Chennai, CSK brought England allrounder Jamie Overton back into their XI and increased the overseas count to three. There was still no room for West Indies left-arm spin-bowling allrounder Akeal Hosein. Local left-arm spin-bowling allrounder Prashant Veer retained his spot in the XI though he didn’t bowl a ball against PBKS.
However, there was no place for their other INR 14.2 crore buy, Kartik Sharma, in their bowl-first XI. He was on the Impact Sub bench along with Australia allrounder Matt Short. One of these two players could slot into CSK’s batting line-up when they chase.
As for RCB, they struck to the same combination that beat SRH on the opening day of IPL 2026 at this venue. Wristspinner Suyash Sharma could replace one of the batters when RCB bowl later this evening.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt), 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Tim David, 7 Romario Shepherd, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Abhinandan Singh, 11 Jacob Duffy Impact subs bench: Suyash Sharma, Jacob Bethell, Rasikh Salam Dar, Kanishk Chouhan, Venkatesh Iyer
Chennai Super Kings: 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 3 Ayush Mhatre, 4 Sarfaraz Khan, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Prashant Veer, 7 Jamie Overton, 8 Matt Henry, 9 Noor Ahmad, 10 Anshul Kamboj, 11 Khaleel Ahmed Impact Subs bench: Matt Short, Akeal Hosein, Kartik Sharma, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Gurjapneet Singh
