Chennai Super Kings have made a key change to their Playing XI for the clash against Gujarat Titans at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The Super Kings are batting first after Titans skipper Shubman Gill won the toss. 

CSK have brought in pacer Matheesha Pathirana in for Sri Lankan spinner Maheesh Theekshana. They have made a swap in between the overseas players and have three foreign stars in the Playing XI.

“We will bowl first. That (against MI) match was physically and mentally exhausting. Everyone is well rested and well settled with 10 teams playing. We get enough rest time between matches. It shows the character of the team and the way our bowlers bounced back against Mumbai. Playing with the same team,” Shubman Gill said at the toss.

“We were looking to bowl first, the wicket is hard and looks similar to the first game. It was a rusty start (against RCB) but we came back well. Everyone showed good intent throughout the innings. Our Malinga, Pathirana comes in for Theekshana,” Gaikwad said during the flip of the coin.

However, the change might not be as surprising as it looks. The previous match played at the venue – the tournament opener between CSK and RCB – did not had much in it for the spinners. The ball was coming onto the bat well. The pitch being used for the clash vs GT is a different one but it has a covering of grass. There are some patches where there is uneven grass covering.

CSK head coach Stephen Fleming had also said that they are guessing the pitch from the previous couple of seasons too. “If you’ve noticed my comments over the last couple of seasons, we’ve been guessing a little bit about the wicket as well,” Fleming said. 

Notably, Pathirana is not named in the Playing XI directly as he is listed in Impact sub-players. This is due to CSK are batting first. He can come in for one of the three overseas players when the hosts defend the total. Pathirana had sustained a hamstring injury during a T20I series against Bangladesh earlier this month and was reportedly set to miss the initial games but has recovered in time to play the second game.

Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Sameer Rizvi, MS Dhoni(w), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Mustafizur Rahman

Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill(c), Azmatullah Omarzai, David Miller, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Spencer Johnson

Chennai Super Kings Impact Subs: Matheesha Pathirana, Shardul Thakur, Shaik Rasheed, Nishant Sindhu, Mitchell Santner

Gujarat Titans Impact Subs: Sai Sudharsan, Sharath BR, Abhinav Manohar, Noor Ahmad, Manav Suthar