Steven Smith and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, two players who captained each other as a part of the Rising Pune Supergiants, will face off as Rajasthan Royals (RR) take on the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Sharjah in the match four of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 on Tuesday.
CSK, who drew many positives and two points from the season opener against Mumbai Indians (MI) will walk out a confident squad. While Sam Curran stepped up as an all-rounder in the absence of Dwayne Bravo, Ambati Rayudu and Faf du Plessis got crucial fifties to lead the team to victory. The squad looked settled as a batting and bowling unit.
Rajasthan Royals, however, will be forced to start with their second choices on 2 of the overseas slots as both Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes have been confirmed to miss the first game of the season. While Buttler is in mandatory quarantine following his travel to the UAE, Stokes is still in New Zealand with his ailing father. RR will be a little worried about the uncertainty looming over Stokes’ participation in the league.
This would probably mean a promotion for Robin Uthappa to the top, with David Miller plugging the gap it would leave in the middle order. Tom Curran is likely to be a direct replacement for Stokes. This will also be a crucial practice run for the two, in preparation of the unlikely scenario that their services are needed later in the tournament.
CSK are unlikely to tinker with their combination from the first game as both Sam Curran and Lungi Ngidi played a crucial role in the team’s victory. This means that we will have to wait to see Imran Tahir’s sprints on the cricket field. The finalists of the first-ever IPL edition, in 2019, CSK had reigned supreme over the Royals in both their clashes.
Probable XIs:
RR: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Robin Uthappa, Steve Smith (c), David Miller, Sanju Samson (wk), Tom Curran, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Ankit Rajpoot
CSK: Murali Vijay, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Deepak Chahar, Piyush Chawla, Lungi Ngidi