IPL 2021, Preview: Buoyant Chennai Super Kings Take On Kolkata Knight Riders

A buoyant Chennai Super Kings (CSK), fresh from two convincing wins in their last two matches, will take on struggling Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match here at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.

While CSK has got two wins in three matches, KKR has won just one out of their three matches and is looking out of sorts. KKR began the IPL 2021 season with a win but lost the next two matches. Their batting has flopped and they have been guilty of throwing their wickets away.

The Eoin Morgan side was done in by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batting duo AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell as their bowlers couldn't find an answer to the hard-hitting. KKR's batting in turn wilted under pressure.

Morgan's captaincy has also come under fire. Former KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir, who led the team to two titles, was upset to see Morgan letting RCB off after having built pressure early by claiming two quick wickets.

 

CSK, on the other hand, has got immense batting depth which was quite clear from the last match against Rajasthan Royals on Monday. Even as they struggled in the middle-overs, there was enough firepower, in the end, to take them to a competitive total. The big challenge for CSK batsmen though will be facing up to KKR spinners.

Squads:

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (captain/wicketkeeper), Suresh Raina, Narayan Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif, Karn Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar, Faf du Plessis, Shardul Thakur, Mitchell Santner, Dwayne Bravo, Lungi Ngidi, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Imran Tahir, Robin Uthappa, Moeen Ali, K Gowtham, Cheteshwar Pujara, M. Harisankar Reddy, K.Bhagath Varma, C Hari Nishaanth, R Sai Kishore, Jason Behrendorff.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Tim Seifert (wicketkeeper), Rahul Tripathi, Rinku Singh, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Eoin Morgan (captain), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun CV, Kuldeep Yadav, Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna, Shakib Al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Karun Nair, Harbhajan Singh, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer, Pawan Negi.