Country’s most-awaited T-20 cricket tournament Indian Premier League (IPL) will kick-start today with defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) taking on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Tamil Nadu at 8 pm IST. 

While Chennai is a five-time champion, Bengaluru has never clinched the trophy but continues to remain favorites due to their star players. RCB recently dropped Bangalore from its name and adopted Bengaluru. Meanwhile, Chennai has also changed a long tradition of keeping MS Dhoni as the captain. Ruturaj Gikawad has been named as the new captain of the team.

Big Guns: The Dhoni, Kohli return 

42-year-old Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MSD) is all set to return to action after nearly a year, having undergone knee surgery following last year’s IPL season. Meanwhile, CSK’s designated spin-hitter Shivam Dube is also fit after missing the Ranji Trophy knockouts with injury. 

For RCB, star batter Virat Kohli will also return to centre stage after a two-month break. He has played only two T20 games – against Afghanistan in January – since the previous IPL and this season will act as his runway to the 2024 T20 World Cup in June. 

Predicted Squad and playing eleven

CSK full squad: 

Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Mukesh Choudhary, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Rachin Ravindra, Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Mustafizur Rahman, Avanish Rao Aravelly.

Possible playing eleven: 

Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Moeen Ali, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Mukesh Choudhary/Tushar Deshpande

RCB full squad:

Faf du Plessis (c),Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.

Possible playing eleven: 

Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Anuj Rawat/Mahipal Lomror/Suyash Prabhudessai, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Alzarri Joseph, Mayank Dagar, 10 Akash Deep/Vyshak Vijaykumar, Mohammed Siraj

Pitch report and weather conditions 

The IPL 2024 opener will be played on the central wicket at Chepauk, which traditionally is a spin-friendly one. The stadium has hosted 76 IPL matches so far and the team batting first has won 46 of them, which is more than 60 percent of the matches. This clearly shows the toss-winning team will have the upper hand. 

In terms of weather conditions, the MeT department has predicted clear skies in Chennai today with maximum temperatures ranging between 31 and 30 degrees Celsius.