Moving over captain MS Dhoni’s argument with the on-field umpires, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will start as favourites when they take on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the rivalry week of IPL 2019 on Sunday.


While Chennai is sitting at the top of the table, KKR have lost two games in a row now, and there are chinks in the armour which skipper Dinesh Karthik needs to fix as soon as possible.

The Toss

CSK have won the toss and have opted to field first. They have decided to go with an unchanged playing XI.

“If you see the wickets have been good over here. It's difficult to contain the batsmen here, hence we need the opposition to put runs. We have had a few niggles and concerns but not worried about that. Hoping Bravo comes back as soon as possible as he gives a balance to our side. Without him being there, we need to find the right balance. I think we are a good space,” said Dhoni at the toss.

On the other hand, KKR have made three changes in the squad. They have brought back the big guns including Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine. At the same time, Harry Gurney comes in place of Lockie Ferguson.

Here are the Playing XIs:

CSK: Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Imran Tahir

KKR: Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik(w/c), Andre Russell, Shubman Gill, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Harry Gurney