NewDelhi: Gujarat Titans (GT) will play Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their first home game of IPL on Friday (March 31) at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad. Expect a huge roar from crowd of over 1 lakh fans when home captain Hardik Pandya and cricket icon MS Dhoni will come out for the toss at 7 pm IST on Friday. The opener could not have been more epic as defending champions GT take on four-time champions CSK. On one side will be the home team hero Hardik while on the other side a pan-India superstar in Dhoni.
GT played superb cricket throughout last IPL to win the trophy and Hardik’s side will be under pressure to deliver the goods right from the start of the tournament as they need to defend the trophy. Playing at home has its benefits but the pressure also doubles up. The title win last year has certainly raises hopes from GT, who have a strong squad even this season.
One big miss for GT in the game vs CSK will be the absence of their star performer from last year. David Miller will not be available for selection as he has not joined the squad yet. The South Africa middle order batter is playing the ODIs vs Netherlands at home and can only join the squad after April 1 when the series concludes. That means he is surely out of the 1st game. Not just him, the likes of Quinton de Kock (LSG), Kagiso Rabada (PBKS), Lungi Ngidi (DC), Aiden Markram (SRH) won’t be available for their franchises for their respective first games.
CSK fans don’t need to worry about all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius as he is not part of the SA ODI squad for Netherlands and has already joined the team. Pretorius will be available for selection from game 1.
CSK Squad: MS Dhoni, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Moeen Ali, Subhranshu Senapati, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Maheesh Theekshana, Prashant Solanki, Deepak Chahar, Mukesh Choudhary, Simarjeet Singh, Tushar Deshpande, Matheesha Pathirana, Ben Stokes, Sisanda Magala, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Nishant Sindhu, Ajay Mandal, Bhagath Varma
GT Squad: Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Abhinav Manohar, Hardik Pandya, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmad, Jayant Yadav, Alzarri Joseph, Mohammed Shami, Yash Dayal, Darshan Nalkande, Pradeep Sangwan, Shivam Mavi, Joshua Little, Kane Williamson, KS Bharat, Odean Smith, Mohit Sharma, Urvil Patel.
Bureau Report
Leave a Reply