IPL 2021: CSK Vs PBKS: MS Dhoni Lockhorns with KL Rahul Today 
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IPL 2021: CSK Vs PBKS: MS Dhoni Lockhorns with KL Rahul Today

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) would look for inspiration from skipper MS Dhoni and a much-improved bowling effort when they take on a power-packed Punjab Kings.

When the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) take on the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 in Mumbai on Friday, they will be looking for inspiration from skipper MS Dhoni and a much-improved bowling effort. In their respective tournament openers, the two teams had very different results. Though CSK lost by seven wickets to Delhi Capitals (DC), Punjab Kings beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by four runs in a high-scoring thriller.

Since the dew can be a factor at Wankhede, the team that wins the toss will want to bowl first.

Despite the failures of the opening pair of Rituraj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis, as well as skipper Dhoni, CSK managed to score a respectable total.
However, against the DC opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw, who were ominous from the start and stitched a 138-run stand to take the game away from CSK, Chennai's bowling unit looked totally out of sorts and clueless.
The CSK skipper himself needs to lead from the front after failing to score against DC.
Punjab Kings, on the other hand, narrowly avoided defeat against RR 
despite scoring a massive 221 for 6 on the board.

KL Rahul opened the batting with a captain's knock of 91 off just 50 balls. Chris Gayle (40 off 28) and Deepak Hooda provided solid support for him (64 off 28).

Punjab Kings and Rahul's batting is not a problem, as shown by their success in the opener, but the bowling unit, like CSK's, remains a major concern despite spending a lot of money at the auction.

The bowling scores of Rahul's bowlers would not make him happy. Punjab's savior was ultimately Arshdeep Singh (3/35), a young man.


Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, KM Asif, Deepak Chahar, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, N Jagadeesan, Karn Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shardul Thakur, Sam Curran, R Sai Kishore, Moeen Ali, K Gowtham, Cheteshwar Pujra, Harishankar Reddy, Bhagath Varma, C Hari Nishaanth.

Punjab Kings: KL Rahul (capt/wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Prabsimran Singh, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Murugan Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Harpreet Brar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ishan Porel, Darshan Nalkande, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Jhye Richardson, Shahrukh Khan, Riley Meredith, Moises Henriques, Jalaj Saxena, Utkarsh Singh, Fabian Allen, Saurabh Kumar.

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