NEW DELHI: Anticipation was sky high as fans waited to see their superstar MS Dhoni in action in IPL 2026, but the wait continues. When Ruturaj Gaikwad walked out to the toss alongside Ajinkya Rahane at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, fans were hoping to hear the words, “MS Dhoni will play today.”But that notification never came.Dhoni, who was seen batting in the nets on Monday ahead of the CSK vs KKR clash, is still recovering.KKR Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and decided to field against CSK.
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Varun Aaron on Praful Hinge’s dream IPL debut and team’s fearless approach “We’ll look at the bowling first. I think the last game was really good for us. Unfortunately, the result didn’t go our way. But I thought the kind of cricket we played, the guys get such confidence from the last game. It’s all about starting again. It’s important when things don’t go your way, it’s important to have that belief, stay positive and have these little, little moments, it’s really important to start now in T20, so now it’s important to start in this game forward.” with the ball and then look to chase the target,” Rahane said during the toss. “Yes, absolutely. The kind of batting that Mukul played on the night was fantastic. I mean, it’s going to happen in this format. Like I said, it’s all about belief. You know, the guys are working really hard. It’s important for us to put in that big effort, focus on control levels as players and, you know, have that belief in each individual. Like I said, that combination and that last game looked really good. I mean, it’s difficult to find the right balance after the mega auction and players are obviously going through injuries, players are unavailable tonight, Varun Chakaravarthy is fit for us,” he said. Gaikwad, on the other hand, did not give any updates on MS Dhoni’s fitness and opted to stick with the same playing XI.“Yeah, we’d be looking first as well. But like I said, you know, the wicket didn’t change much as the game went on. So not much of a difference. It’s definitely going to be a challenge to put a big total on the scoreboard in the first innings, but like I said, you know, it’s looking really good. Yeah, like I said, even in the postgame, there was good defense against DC1, I felt you defended against 2. It gave us a lot of confidence and you know, even the fielding unit was loaded. We saved a few runs and I think we did really well together,” Gaikwad said. “It’s really exciting today. We’ve got the job done and everybody’s feeling confident. And talking about the combos today, Ajinkya, I think even in your case, it looks like you’re getting the balance right now. Yeah, I think we’re slowly getting it right. You know, Brevis is coming back and you know, J&P are putting those key powerups in between. So I think every game we’re slowly and slowly putting the right combination and staying, slowly we’re getting to the right combination. is your combination for today’s match. We’re going with the same team,” he said. CSK have played five matches so far this season including this encounter and Dhoni has missed all of them due to a calf strain.On 28 March, CSK said that Dhoni would be sidelined for the first two weeks of the tournament and undergo rehabilitation. Although that period is now over, he has yet to regain full match fitness.Dhoni has also not traveled with the team for away matches this season.In 278 IPL matches, Dhoni scored 5,439 runs in 242 innings at an average of 38.30 and a strike rate of 137.45, including 24 fifties, with a top score of 84*. He is currently the sixth highest run scorer in IPL history.Last season, when CSK finished bottom of the table, he managed 196 runs in 13 innings at an average of 24.50 and a strike rate of 135, with a top score of 30.Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Ajinkya Rahane (c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (w), Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik TyagiChennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Sanju Samson (w), Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ayush Mhatre, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Dewald Brevis, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Khaleel Ahmed
