NEW DELHI: The roar was deafening, the decibel levels off the charts, and Chepauk bathed in a sea of yellow as their beloved 'Thala' Mahendra Singh Dhoni strode out for the toss. With the crowd in full voice, Dhoni flipped the coin, and Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Ajinkya Rahane called correctly. Rahane won the toss and chose to field against Chennai Super Kings in their IPL 2025 clash at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday.
Also See: CSK vs KKR, IPL Live Score
"We'll bowl first. There were a lot of positives from the last game. We as a team played really well. It is about improving each game. This looks like a good wicket, won't change much," Rahane said during the toss.
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"We are batting deep, so that's why we look to bowl first and chase things down. Play to our strengths. One change - Moeen Ali comes in for Spencer," he said.
Amid the thunderous cheers and electrifying atmosphere, Dhoni shared a major update on Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Confirming the setback, Dhoni announced that Gaikwad has been ruled out of the tournament due to injury, and he will now take over the captaincy for the remainder of IPL 2025.
"We were looking to bat first as well. Quite a few occasions where we tried to chase it down and what we realised is that the wicket slows down a bit, so if you don't get a good start then the middle order comes under pressure. He has fractured something on his elbow, so he is ruled out of the tournament. It is important, we have lost too many matches and now it is important to do the basics right - have dot balls, take our catches," Dhoni said during the toss.
"A couple of games we lost by big margins, but otherwise it was about the small things - about one over going for 20 runs. Our batters are more authentic as batters, they won't slog everything. They just need to back their instincts. It is important to start well, get boundaries early on and try to get a couple of early wickets as well. Couple of changes for us - Tripathi comes in for Ruturaj, and Anshul Kambhoj in for Mukesh," he said.
Teams:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy
Kolkata Knight Riders Impact Subs: Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Luvnith Sisodia, Anukul Roy
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Rahul Tripathi, Vijay Shankar, Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed
Chennai Super Kings Impact Subs: Matheesha Pathirana, Jamie Overton, Deepak Hooda, Shaik Rasheed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti
Also See: CSK vs KKR, IPL Live Score
"We'll bowl first. There were a lot of positives from the last game. We as a team played really well. It is about improving each game. This looks like a good wicket, won't change much," Rahane said during the toss.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel.
"We are batting deep, so that's why we look to bowl first and chase things down. Play to our strengths. One change - Moeen Ali comes in for Spencer," he said.
Amid the thunderous cheers and electrifying atmosphere, Dhoni shared a major update on Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Confirming the setback, Dhoni announced that Gaikwad has been ruled out of the tournament due to injury, and he will now take over the captaincy for the remainder of IPL 2025.
🚨 Toss 🚨@KKRiders won the toss and elected to bowl against @ChennaiIPL in Chennai.
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 11, 2025
Updates â–¶ https://t.co/gPLIYGimQn#TATAIPL | #CSKvKKR pic.twitter.com/r2GTOQ6cvc
"We were looking to bat first as well. Quite a few occasions where we tried to chase it down and what we realised is that the wicket slows down a bit, so if you don't get a good start then the middle order comes under pressure. He has fractured something on his elbow, so he is ruled out of the tournament. It is important, we have lost too many matches and now it is important to do the basics right - have dot balls, take our catches," Dhoni said during the toss.
"A couple of games we lost by big margins, but otherwise it was about the small things - about one over going for 20 runs. Our batters are more authentic as batters, they won't slog everything. They just need to back their instincts. It is important to start well, get boundaries early on and try to get a couple of early wickets as well. Couple of changes for us - Tripathi comes in for Ruturaj, and Anshul Kambhoj in for Mukesh," he said.
Teams:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy
Kolkata Knight Riders Impact Subs: Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Luvnith Sisodia, Anukul Roy
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Rahul Tripathi, Vijay Shankar, Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed
Chennai Super Kings Impact Subs: Matheesha Pathirana, Jamie Overton, Deepak Hooda, Shaik Rasheed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti
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