Chennai Super Kings won the toss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and chose to field first, reversing a run of recent fortune for captain Ruturaj Gaikwad after two straight toss losses and two consecutive defeats. With the Bengaluru surface freshened up for the start of the contest, Gaikwad said the decision was made with bowling in mind and noted that MS Dhoni, dealing with a calf issue, is moving through his recovery process positively. CSK also confirmed they were still without Dewald Brevis, who continues his return from a side injury.
Team news and XI changes
CSK’s lineup included a notable adjustment from their previous match against Punjab Kings in Chennai, where they had used only two overseas players. For this game, the franchise recalled England allrounder Jamie Overton, lifting their overseas presence to three. Akeal Hosein remained unavailable, with the West Indies left-arm spin-bowling allrounder still not ready to feature. Prashant Veer, another left-arm spinner-bowling allrounder type, kept his place in the starting XI even though he did not get an opportunity to bowl in the earlier clash versus PBKS.
There was still no spot for Kartik Sharma, CSK’s other INR 14.2 crore acquisition, in the bowling-first XI. He started the match as an Impact Sub, alongside Australia allrounder Matt Short. Either of those options could be introduced into CSK’s batting framework if the game’s chase requires it later on.
On the RCB side, they stuck with the same playing combination that had helped them beat Sunrisers Hyderabad at this venue on the opening day of IPL 2026. RCB also left a tactical lever available for later in the evening: wrist spinner Suyash Sharma has been named as a potential replacement for one of the batters once Bengaluru begins bowling.
Playing XIs
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt), 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Tim David, 7 Romario Shepherd, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Abhinandan Singh, 11 Jacob Duffy
Impact subs bench: Suyash Sharma, Jacob Bethell, Rasikh Salam Dar, Kanishk Chouhan, Venkatesh Iyer
Chennai Super Kings: 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 3 Ayush Mhatre, 4 Sarfaraz Khan, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Prashant Veer, 7 Jamie Overton, 8 Matt Henry, 9 Noor Ahmad, 10 Anshul Kamboj, 11 Khaleel Ahmed
Impact Subs bench: Matt Short, Akeal Hosein, Kartik Sharma, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Gurjapneet Singh
