Both their defeats exposed KKR's over-reliance on Andre Russell. The Windies power hitter has been exceptional for KKR this season with six successive 40-plus scores and it would be a massive blow for the hosts if they miss him in the back end of the tournament. Thankfully for KKR, talented youngster Shubman Gill looked in sublime form and returned with a 65 off 39 balls after being promoted to open against Delhi Capitals.
But KKR need their batting to click as a whole, especially, skipper Dinesh Karthik who has been their leading run-getter last season. He has been struggling this time with 93 runs at a woeful average of 15.33.
On the other hand, under astute captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Chennai are on a rampage with six wins out of seven, including three in a row. But in the last match, Dhoni was in the spotlight for wrong reasons.
Although Dhoni escaped a ban and was let off with a 50 per cent fine on his match fee for an unprecedented confrontation with the umpires. This match will take place in the backdrop of the latest IPL controversy but the Super Kings will be keen to put it behind them with another dazzling performance.
SQUADS:
KKR: Dinesh Karthik (c/wk), Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn, Shubman Gill, Andre Russell, Carlos Brathwaite, Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Nikhil Naik, Joe Denly, Shrikant Mundhe, Nitish Rana, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna, Lockie Ferguson, Harry Gurney, Matt Kelly, KC Cariappa and Yarra Prithviraj.
CSK: MS Dhoni (c/wk), Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Murali Vijay, Kedar Jadhav, Sam Billings, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Shorey, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Rituraj Gaikwad, Dwayne Bravo, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir, Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Mohit Sharma, KM Asif, Deepak Chahar, N Jagadeesan, Scott Kuggeleijn