IPL 2024 begins today, CSK and RCB to lock horns at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai
The much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 is all set to begin today. The first match of the tournament will be played between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challenger Bangalore (RCB). As per official reports, the match will begin at 8.00 pm Indian Standard Time (IST) at the MA Chindambaram Stadium in Chennai.
It is worth mentioning here that just a day before the inaugural match of the tournament, the CSK released a statement revealing that Indian star batter Mahindra Singh Dhoni has handed over Chennai Super Kings’ captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of the start of IPL 2024. Ruturaj has been an integral part of Chennai Super Kings since 2019 and has played 52 matches in IPL during this period. The team looks forward to the upcoming season.
Notably, this will only be just the second time MS Dhoni won’t start an IPL season as skipper of CSK, after Ravindra Jadeja had been the captain in IPL 2022, only for him to be replaced mid-way by the legendary wicketkeeper-batter.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli will also not do the captaincy of Royal Challengers Bangalore. In place of Virat, this year Faf du Plessis will be the captain of RCB.
Chennai Super Kings Squad:
Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Devon Conway, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Rachin Ravindra, Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Mustafizur Rahman, Avanish Rao Aravelly.
Royal Challengers Bangalore Squad:
Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.
Ms Kalinga