Johnson Cherian.
The eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League will begin on a lively note with an opening ceremony and a much-anticipated match between defending champions Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.
Coming into the IPL after two years of suspension, Chennai Super Kings will be led by the captain cool M.S. Dhoni. CSK fans thronged the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium to back their superstars when the practice sessions were held in Chennai.
The rivalry between these two teams is quite well known. Chennai Super Kings has won the IPL twice while Mumbai Indians has won three times. Both the teams have played 22 matches against each other. Mumbai Indians has won 12 times while Chennai Super Kings has won 10. The last time the two teams met was in 2015.
The teams
Chennai Super Kings: M.S. Dhoni (Captain and wicket-keeper), K.M. Asif, Sam Billings, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir, Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, N. Jagadeesan, Kshitiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Lungi Ngidi, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Kanishk Seth, Karn Sharma, Dhruv Shorey, Shardul Thakur, Murali Vijay, Shane Watson and Mark Wood.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar, Pat Cummins, Ben Cutting, Akila Dhananjaya, J.P. Duminy, Ishan Kishan, Siddhesh Lad, Evin Lewis, Sharad Lamba, Mayank Markande, Mitchell McClenaghan, Mohsin Khan, Mustafizur Rahman, MD Nidheesh, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Anukul Roy, Pradeep Sangwan, Tajinder Singh, Aditya Tare, Saurabh Tiwary, Suryakumar Yadav.
My playing XI would be:
Chennai Super Kings: Murali Vijay, Shane Watson, Suresh Raina, M.S. Dhoni, Faf du Plessis, Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Lungi Ngidi or Imran Tahir, Shardul Thakur, Mark Wood and Karn Sharma.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Evin Lewis, Suryakumar Yadav, J.P. Duminy or Ben Cutting, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Mitchell McClenaghan, Ishan Kishan or Aditya Tare, Anukul Roy or Rahul Chahar and Pradeep Sangwan
