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have both scored a couple of half-centuries each and that too at healthy strike rates — 180.95 for Buttler and 164.47 for Jaiswal.
But in the three games that the Royals have played so far, two were in Guwahati, which was the flattest batting deck amongst all the venues. The Hyderabad track was also loaded heavily in favour of batters.
And, suddenly, they come to Chennai where the ball can grip and also get slower as the match progresses. The toss is always an important factor in Chennai as chasing anything above 170 to 175 could be a risky proposition.
Especially when Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mitchell Santner are operating at the Chepauk and might bowl 10 if not 12, overs between them. Matches can be won and lost there.
But by no means Royals’ spinners could be taken lightly as the wily ‘Cricket Scientist’ Ravichandran Ashwin has played all his cricket at this very ground and the intelligent Yuzvendra Chahal can outfox any batter on a given day. Add the other Tamil Nadu spinner Murugan Ashwin in the mix and CSK will also have their own set of challenges.
However, CSK will be missing Deepak Chahar, who is expected to be out of the tournament due to the recurrence of a left hamstring injury.
Whether Dhoni prefers the erratic but pacey Rajvardhan Hangargekar or the incisive Simarjeet Singh will be a big question.
On the batting front, the vastly experienced Ajinkya Rahane showed he too could score quickly on his CSK debut as the team turned in a strong performance with spinners Jadeja and Santner doing a fine job.
Add the good run of Ruturaj Gaikwad at the top of the order and CSK do have a formidable batting line-up. But they would be up against an equally well-endowed Royals team.
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