(Cricket news) Virat Kohli’s side will be looking to get back to winning ways after a very disappointing loss to KKR in their first game back. With five wins from eight matches, Kohli's team still look in a good position to qualify. On the other hand, Chennai Super Kings will be looking to reclaim the top spot and virtually put one foot in the playoffs.

CSK will again be looking at their openers to give them a good start to the game so that the middle order batsman can play with a freedom. Ruturaj Gaikwad will be the man to watch out as he made 88* against a good Mumbai bowling attack on a tricky pitch, with the match being played at Sharjah we can expect some big hitting from him. While Curran may be available for selection, CSK just might persist with Dwayne Bravo for his experience as he offers a better death bowling pedigree. Ambati Rayudu suffered a bad bruising on his elbow the previous match, it remains to be seen if he plays or not. Jadeja’s matchup against Maxwell might be an intriguing watch as he has dismissed him 5 times in 36 balls in the IPL.

RCB might just be interested in playing Navdeep Saini but it could be a gamble especially when we have seen that a little extra pace is helping the batsman in these conditions. Virat and RCB management will look to strengthen their middle order as too much dependence is on the top four. Tim David might get picked instead of Hasaranga as his explosive batting style along with playing in the same venue not long ago and also short boundaries might just help him get selected. The strike rate of Suresh Raina this IPL against pacers has been 91, something Virat will look to exploit with Kyle Jamesion and Siraj.

Also read: Kolkata Knight Riders defeat Mumbai Indians for the first time since 2019 to enter the top 4

Head to head: CSK 17- 9 RCB, Chennai have won the 9 out of 11 encounters also, the last time they played together CSK won comfortably by 69 runs as it was a Ravindra Jadeja show, he scored 62* off 28 and took 3-13 with the ball.

Pitch and Weather report: Sharjah Cricket Stadium is usually a batters paradise, with the pitches mostly being flat and with short boundaries we can expect few runs to be scored. The bowlers need to be inch perfect to get their desired result. The temperature is going to hover around 35 degrees with no chance of rain at all.

Interesting facts:

• Harshal Patel has dismissed Faf du Plessis twice in 13 balls and has dismissed Rayudu four times in 36 balls.
• MS Dhoni has scored 824 runs against RCB, which is most against a single franchise
• Virat has scored 151 runs off 98 delivers against Dwayne Bravo without being dismissed
• Virat is 66 runs off making 10,000 runs in T20
• Sharjah has 56 T20s out of which 36 have been won by the team batting second.

Probable XI for CSK:

Faf du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (c&wk), Dwayne Bravo/Sam Curran, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Josh Hazlewood

Probable XI for RCB:

Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, KS Bharat (wk), Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Tim David/Wanindu Hasaranga, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini