Rajasthan Royals, who struggled last year, will start their IPL 2020 campaign against Chennai Super Kings at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Tuesday, September 22. Chennai Super Kings has started their campaign on the right note as they defeated Mumbai Indians in the opening game by five wickets.
Rajasthan Royals made quite a few changes in their squad and they would like to get off to a winning start so that they can carry some momentum going into the tournament. Both these teams have contrasting players, CSK has players who have loads of experience at the international level whereas RR has a lot of young and uncapped players who haven’t played at the international level.
It would be fun to watch a contest between two contrasting sides when they take on each other in Match 4 of IPL 2020.
Match Details
Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings, Match 4
22nd September, 07:30 PM IST.
Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah
Pitch and Weather Report
The trend will continue in Sharjah as well as the temperature will most probably be in the mid and high 30s which means players will have to deal with a huge amount of sweat.
Out of the three venues which are going to be used in this year’s IPL, Sharjah has the best wicket for the batsmen. The average score batting first is around 160 which might go up at the start of the tournament. A score around 180 could be a good one while batting first.
Squads
Rajasthan Royals
Steve Smith (C), Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Manan Vohra, Ben Stokes, David Miller, Riyan Parag, Mahipal Lomror, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Mayank Markande, Jaydev Unadkat, Varun Aaron, Jofra Archer, Oshane Thomas, Tom Curran, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Singh, Andrew Tye, Ankit Rajpoot, Anuj Rawat, Shashank Singh, Aniruddha Joshi
Chennai Super Kings
MS Dhoni (C), Shane Watson, Murali Vijay, Ambati Rayudu, Faf Du Plessis, Kedar Jadhav, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Dwayne Bravo, Sam Curran, Piyush Chawla, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Imran Tahir, KM Asif, M Jagdeesan, Karn Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Josh Hazlewood, Monu Kumar, R Sai Kishore,
Team News
Rajasthan Royals
Rajasthan Royals will miss the services of two of their key overseas players - Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes in the opening game. Ben Stokes hasn’t joined the team whereas Buttler has to spend a couple of days more in the quarantine because he came to UAE with his family.
In their absence, the likes of David Miller and Tom Curran might get a chance in the first XI. Yashasvi Jaiswal, the U-19 India player who was the leading run-scorer in the youth World Cup, might open the batting and he is one youngster whose batting you don’t want to miss.
In the bowling department, their wrist spin is covered but they don’t have an off-spinner who can take the ball away from the left-hander. Steve Smith their skipper and Shreyas Gopal, the leg-spinner will be key for Rajasthan Royals.
Chennai Super Kings
Chennai Super Kings’ coach Stephen Fleming said that Dwayne Bravo might miss few more games which means there is a high chance that he won’t be playing the game against RR. The likes of Faf Du Plessis and Sam Curran did well in the first game and they should stick with them.
Ambati Rayudu was hitting the ball nicely in the first game and he might be the player to watch out for in this game. Among the bowlers, Piyush Chawla and Lungi Ngidi played a crucial role in the first game and will continue to do so. Deepak Chahar might find some swing at the start of the innings.
Fantasy Prediction
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Faf Du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, Sanju Samson, MS Dhoni, Riyan Parag, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Shreyas Gopal, Piyush Chawla, Jofra Archer
Captain: Faf Du Plessis, Vice-Captain: Sanju Samson