A mixed atmosphere in the Royals camp with the absence of Stokes & inclusion of Smith in their Playing XI will certainly be a booster to the Rajasthan franchise when they lace their boots against a motivated Super Kings who bettered MI in the opening encounter by 5 wickets.
MSD-led Chennai Super Kings will aim to extend their win from Abu Dhabi to Sharjah, thereby expecting its opening pair of Vijay-Watson to lay the foundation of the victory. Rajasthan Royals, on the other end, having followed a downward trajectory along with CSK sharing a 2-year ban from IPL will aim to re-create its own fairytale version in Dubai.
RR’s overseas players need to step up to account for Buttler’s absence
Owing to the quarantine restriction, the Royals are set to miss the services of Butler today in high-scoring & comparatively a contrasting pitch of Sharjah as compared to the surface in Dubai or Abu Dhabi.
Another opportunity of converting its weakness into strength will be to extract the best from the likes of Indian contingent comprising Sanju Samson, Robin Uthappa, Jaydev Unadkat and Varun Aaron, who have failed to stand true to the expectations from the team management & the fan-base over the years. Overseas T20 stars for their respective countries – David Miller (SA), Andrew Tye (AUS) & Tom Curran (ENG) will play a crucial role for the Royals in the tournament.
Chennai will hope to hit consistency with their lineup
CSK will hope to continue showcasing their talent of “utilizing their resources to the best of team’s interest” as they look ahead to tick all the boxes required to emerge as one of the top title-contenders in UAE. The addition of Piyush Chawla in the spin department alongside Jadeja stands the capability of forming the match-winning spin trio for the Chennai franchise. The pace trio of Lungi Ngidi – Deepak Chahar- Sam Curran will continue to work in partnership; thereby providing regular breakthroughs irrespective of the depth in opposition’s batting line-up.
The expectation from the opening pair of Vijay-Watson to soon erase all the uncertainties created in the last encounter against MI- CSK management hope the duo to soon enter the list of destructive top-order of SRH (Warner-Bairstow-Manish Pandey) and RCB (Padikkal-Finch-Kohli). With Faf-Rayudu & Sam Curran already showcasing a glimpse of their form in the opening encounter against MI, this batting line-up with one of the best finishers in form of their skipper- MSD, the team has the ability to create nightmares among the strongest bowling line-up of IPL 2020.
One of the highest-scoring grounds, not only in UAE but across the globe with the highest total registered was 215/6 by Afghanistan against Zimbabwe back in 2013, can see the record being shattered this season of IPL with 11 games scheduled of the league stages of “Dream 11- IPL 2020” including today’s encounter between Smith led Royals & MS led Super Kings.
Probable Playing XI
Rajasthan Royals
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Robin Uthappa, Steven Smith (c), David Miller, Sanju Samson (wk), Tom Curran, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Varun Aaron.
Chennai Super Kings
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.