While the Royals had a strong on-paper team before the tournament started, the absence of Jos Buttler and Ben Stoke certainly leaves their plans in a bit of disarray. Jos Buttler has arrived in the UAE with family and is undergoing extended quarantine. This rules him out of Tuesday's fixture in Sharjah. Ben Stokes is still with family in New Zealand.
David Miller is expected to replace Stokes and either of Robin Uthappa or Vohra will replace Buttler at top of the order. Apart from that RR lacks quality in their bowling to tackle this CSK challenge. On the positive note, some of their new recruits along with their seasoned campaigners makes up a strong domestic batting core. The likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Sanju Samson, Manan Vohra and Robin Uthappa are all capable of single-handedly pulling them out of any trouble. To add to that they have the services of one of the most sought out young bowlers in world cricket, Jofra Archer. Steve Smith who has an impressive win ratio as captain in the IPL, will be leading this side and he will have to step up as a batsman to give this MS Dhoni-led CSK a strong fight.
CSK on the other hand has fewer problems to sort out. Their only worry will be regarding their opening pair. Both Watson and Vijay haven't played much of T20 cricket in the last one year and it's clearly showing in their batting performances. Despite that, they will get one more trail in this match as Dhoni is known to be a man who trusts and backs his players to the fullest. Lungi Ngidi who leaked runs at the start will also be under the scanner in this match, but the way he came back in the death made sure that he doesn't lose his place to Hazlewood. The CSK line-up is expected to be the same.
While CSK didn't feel the absence of their star players, Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh, in their opening game, it will be interesting to see how RR line-up and do without Buttler and Stokes. If the Rajasthan Royals had opening batsman Jos Buttler and star all-rounder Ben Stokes, the two sides would have looked more evenly-matched. But without the two, expect CSK to make it two in two.
Weather Forecast
The temperature at Sharjah would be warm with high humidity. During the time when the match will begin at 6 pm local time the temperature would be around 36-degree Celsius, however as the match progress the temperature will come down to 32 degree Celsius. The humidity will be more than 60 percent throughout the evening which can give a tough time to bowlers to take the grip on the ball.
Pitch Report
We expect the surface at Sharjah a little more batting-friendly and the bowlers will have to toil a bit harder, especially in the death overs. The weather is likely to be hot and the fitness of players will be tested yet again. Needless to say, there are negligible chances of rain. The team batting first should be looking to put a total of at least 175-185 runs on the board.
Toss Prediction
Out of all three venues in the UAE, Sharjah is the most batting-friendly wicket and hence this match is expected to a high scoring encounter. Even though the surface is likely to get slower with the passage of play, dew might just make the batting a whole lot easier in the second session. Also, this is the first match on this surface and both sides will want to take a look before batting on it. Therefore, we expect the captain winning the toss to bowl first.
Stats and Facts
Head to head: Matches 22
Chennai Super Kings: 14
Rajasthan Royals: 8
Approaching Milestones:
68 more runs and MS Dhoni will complete 4500 IPL runs
Robin Uthappa is one shy from completing 25 IPL fifties
David Miller needs 1 catch to complete 50 IPL catches
MS Dhoni (295 sixes) is five sixes away to complete his 300 T20 sixes.
MS Dhoni (100 catches) is three catches away to surpass Suresh Raina (102 catches) and become the second most catch-taker in IPL history.
Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu need 43 and 45 runs respectively to complete 1000 IPL runs for CSK
Likely XIs:
Chennai Super Kings: 1 Shane Watson, 2 M Vijay, 3 Faf du Plessis, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 MS Dhoni (capt, wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Sam Curran, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Deepak Chahar, 11 Lungi Ngidi
Rajasthan Royals: 1 Robin Uthappa (wk), 2 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 3 Sanju Samson, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 David Miller, 6 Riyan Parag, 7 Shreyas Gopal, 8 Jofra Archer, 9 Jaydev Unadkat, 10 Varun Aaron, 11 Tom Curran
Players to Watch Out For:
Chennai Super Kings: Ambati Rayudu, Faf du Plessis, Sam Curran, Shane Watson, Piyush Chawla
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Steven Smith, Jofra Archer, Tom Curran
Match Odds:
Chennai Super Kings: 1.72
Rajastha Royals: 2.20
IPL 2020 Winner Live Odds
Royal Challengers Bangalore - 5.5
Mumbai Indians - 5.5
Chennai Super Kings - 5.5
Delhi Capitals - 6
Sunrisers Hyderabad - 7.5
Kolkata Knight Riders - 8
Kings XI Punjab - 12
Rajasthan Royals - 12
Match Venue: Sharjah Cricket Stadium, UAE
Time: 7.30 PM IST
TV: Star Sports Network
Live Streaming: Disney+ Hotstar VIP
