The highly-anticipated sporting event across the country has finally arrived and the first match of the new season will be played between the finalists of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. The defending champions, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will lock horns with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai at 7:30 PM IST on March 26, Saturday.
Under the new leadership of Ravindra Jadeja, CSK will be commencing their title defence from Saturday. Jadeja was announced as the captain on Thursday in an official statement released by the franchise. In the IPL 2022 retention, CSK retained Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali and Ruturaj Gaikwad. In the mega auction, the four-time IPL champions managed to get back the core by getting the likes of Dwayne Bravo, Robin Uthappa and Deepak Chahar onboard. With some experienced contenders in their squad along with MSD who captained the side for more than a decade, the Chennai-based franchise seems like a formidable team. CSK will look forward to starting things off where they left by clinching the first game in Mumbai in front of the spectators.
On the other hand, KKR will also commence their IPL 2022 campaign with a young skipper, Shreyas Iyer, who has the experience of leading a team in the marquee Indian T20 league. Releasing their skipper, Eoin Morgan, KKR retained the Caribbean duo of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine along with Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Chakravarthy. The Shahrukh Khan-backed team looks balanced on paper considering the players they have in each department. After having an underwhelming phase 1 in 2021, the Knight Riders made a significant comeback and grabbed a spot in the final. However, they missed out on a chance to claim the trophy in the final frontier but their effort and comeback were appreciated across the fraternity. With a new set of players in their team, the two-time IPL champions will aim to go a step ahead and win their third title.
Head-to-head:
In the head-to-head competition between the two teams, CSK are miles ahead of KKR. The two teams have played 26 against each other, Chennai won 17 games while Kolkata emerged victorious on eight occasions.
In the last outing, which took place in the IPL 2021 final, CSK won by 18 runs.
Principal Sponsors:
Chennai Super Kings: TVS Eurogrip, India Cements, Gulf, British Empire, SNJ 10000, Jio and Astral Pipes.
Kolkata Knight Riders: WinZO and Unacademy.
TV and LIVE streaming details:
TV – Star Sports Network
OTT – Disney+Hotstar