Chennai, Apr 11 (UNI) MS Dhoni returned to lead Chennai Super Kings (CSK) after over 600 days in the 25th match of IPL 2025 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Friday, but the moment was clouded by the announcement that star opener Ruturaj Gaikwad has been ruled out of the tournament due to an elbow fracture.
Adding to CSK's concerns, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won the toss and elected to field.
"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," Dhoni said at the toss.
"He (Gaikwad) has fractured something on his elbow, so he is ruled out of the tournament," he added, confirming the injury blow without naming a replacement.
KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane said the decision to bowl first was based on the team’s recent performance and batting depth.
"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," Rahane said. "This looks like a good wicket, won't change much. We are batting deep, so that's why we look to bowl first and chase things down."
KKR made one change to their playing XI, with Moeen Ali replacing Spencer.
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
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
Impact Subs: Matheesha Pathirana, Jamie Overton, Deepak Hooda, Shaik Rasheed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti
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