Toss Chennai Super Kings chose to bowl vs Lucknow Super Giants
Whistles rang out as Ruturaj Gaikwad won his third toss of IPL 2026 and chose to bowl against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). A song from one of the new Tamil Nadu chief minister's movies welcomed the two captains to the middle on the day he swore in for work and attracted most of the crowd that frequents the Chepauk. Cinema and cricket has always gone hand in hand in Chennai but on Sunday there was a clear winner. With MS Dhoni still missing in action, it was almost a no-contest.
Rishabh Pant wanted to bowl as well driven by the fact that the pitch has spent a lot of time under the covers in the lead-up to the game on account of rain. LSG welcomed Josh Inglis back into the XI, which means they're more or less full-strength, with Arshin Kulkarni dropping off. Avesh Khan and Mayank Yadav were on the bench as potential impact subs.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are likely to bring Sarfaraz Khan into their line-up when they chase. It was curious though that they had Shivam Dube in their bowl-first XI and Gurjapneet Singh on the bench.
Chennai Super Kings: 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 3 Urvil Patel, 4 Kartik Sharma, 5 Dewald Brevis, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Jamie Overton, 8 Akeal Hosein, 9 Anshul Kamboj, 10 Noor Ahmed, 11 Mukesh Choudhary
CSK bench: Gurjapneet Singh, Prashant Veer, Matthew Short, Sarfaraz Khan, Akash Madhwal
Lucknow Super Giants: 1 Mitchell Marsh, 2 Josh Inglis, 3 Nicholas Pooran, 4 Rishabh Pant, 5 Aiden Markram, 6 Akshat Raghuwanshi, 7 Himmat Singh, 8 Shahbaz Ahmed, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Prince Yadav, 11 Digvesh Rathi
LSG bench: Mukul Choudhary, Avesh Khan, Abdul Samad, M Siddharth, Mayank Yadav