Ruturaj Gaikwad-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are hosting Ajinkya Rahane’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 22nd match of IPL 2026 at MA Chidambaram Stadium. The visiting team won the toss and opted to bowl first. They brought back Varun Chakaravarthy in place of Navdeep Saini. CSK decided against making any changes in their final XI. “Looking to bowl first. I think the last game was really good for us. Unfortunately, the result didn’t go our way. But I thought the kind of cricket we played, guys are getting that confidence from the last game. It’s all about starting fresh. It’s important when things are not going your way, it’s important to have that belief, stay positive and having those small, small moments in T20 format is really important. So, now looking forward to this game, we’ll start off really well with the ball and then look to chase down the target,” Rahane said at the toss.
“Yes, we would have bowled first as well. But as I said, you know, The wicket hasn’t changed much throughout the course of the game. So not much of a difference. Definitely putting a big total on the scoreboard first innings will be challenging, but as I said, you know, it looks a really good surface. Yes, as I said, even in the post-match as well, I felt the bowling was really good defending 210, you know, against a strong DC side,” said Ruturaj Gaikwad.
MS Dhoni is yet to recover from the calf strain and is not part of the playing XI. He was initially ruled out for the first 2 weeks of the tournament, but is not fit to play.
With 1 win from 4 matches, CSK are in the ninth spot in the IPL 2026 points table. They have 2 points at an NRR of -1.532. KKR are yet to win a game and have suffered 3 defeats from 4 matches. They earned one point after the washed out fixture against Punjab Kings.
Here are playing XIs of both teams –
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (Captain), Sanju Samson, Ayush Mhatre, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Dewald Brevis, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Khaleel Ahmed.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi.
