Rajasthan opt to bowl; Chennai bring in Mitchell Santner

Rajasthan have won the toss and have opted to bowl first vs Chennai

Rajasthan skipper Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and elected opted to bowl first vs Chennai at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Rajasthan are unchanged, while Chennai have brought in Mitchell Santner.

MS Dhoni: By 8 O’Clock the dew already starts coming down, although it will keep getting heavier. I am not saying it will not make a difference, but it does even out a bit. Just the one change – Mitchell Santner comes in place of Harbhajan Singh.

Ajinkya Rahane: We’ll bowl first. Not sure about the wicket but I think dew might come in later. Chennai is a very strong batting line up and we’ll look to bowl well up front to them. We are playing with the same XI.

Teams:

Rajasthan XI: Ajinkya Rahane(c), Jos Buttler(w), Sanju Samson, Steven Smith, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tripathi, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Shreyas Gopal, Dhawal Kulkarni

Chennai XI: Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni(w/c), Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Imran Tahir

PREVIEW

It’s still early days in the Indian T20 League but Rajasthan find themselves at the bottom of the pile with two consecutive defeats. Their next opponents, Chennai are contrastingly placed at the top of the points-table, having won both their games of the season so far. Besides the contrasting fortunes of these two teams, another important factor remains the pitch, which attracted controversy due to its slowness. (READ: Winless Bangalore set for daunting Hyderabad test)

Rajasthan, despite being unable to get off the mark in the standings, have witnessed some wonderful individual performances. Jos Buttler set the tone in their opening game with a sparkling half-century, while Sanju Samson lit up the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium with this year’s maiden century, alongside Ajinkya Rahane. The contest has been billed as Chennai’s bowlers against Rajasthan’s batsmen. (READ: Samson ton in vain as Hyderabad win high-scoring contest)

Rajasthan boast a formidable batting line-up with the likes of Buttler, Rahane, Steve, Smith, Ben Stokes and Samson in their ranks. However, the batting hasn’t lived-up to its reputation so far. Meanwhile, for Chennai, spinners Harbhajan Singh and Imran Tahir have been among the wickets, along with medium-pacer Deepak Chahar who struck early in both matches.

For Chennai, this would be a wonderful opportunity to test their batsmen. In the opening game, they chased down a target of 71 runs whereas their middle order was slightly tested against Delhi. At home, Chennai look better placed of the two sides to take the match, but a lot will depend on the pitch. In the first game of the season, the deck came under fire with both MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli not in favour of “such playing conditions.”