Chennai Super Kings stand-in captain MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to field against Rishabh Pant's Lucknow Super Giants on Monday.
"Blessed," Dhoni said, about the sea of yellow at the Ekana Stadium, after winning the toss. He wanted to bowl first because of chances of dew later. He said the team was looking for consistency from the batters and better powerplay bowling performances. Shaik Rasheed replaces and Jamie Overton come into the team, in place of Devon Conway and R Ashwin.
Pant confirmed Mitchell Marsh was back into the XI after missing the previous game. Himmat Singh goes out of the team. Pant hoped the openers continued their fine form.
The teams are playing on pitch no. 5 today, which is the centre wicket. There are square boundaries of 66 metres on both sides and 73 metres straight. The pitch is a mix of 70% red soil and 30% black soil, so it won't be very slow and some runs should be available.
CSK are looking to break a five-game losing streak while LSG are trying to make it five wins in a row.
LSG XI: 1 Aiden Markram, 2 Mitchell Marsh, 3 Nicholas Pooran, 4 Rishabh Pant, 5 Ayush Badoni, 6 David Miller, 7 Abdul Samad, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Akash Deep, 11 Digvesh Rathi
LSG's Impact Player options: Bishnoi, Prince Yadav, Shahbaz, Breetzke, Himmat Singh
CSK XI 1 Shaik Rasheed, 2 Rachin Ravindra, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Ravindra Jadeja, 5 Vijay Shankar, 6 Jamie Overton, 7 MS Dhoni, 8 Anshul Kamboj, 9 Noor Ahmad, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, 11 Matheesha Pathirana
CSK's Impact Player options: Dube, Nagarkoti, Curran, Hooda, Ramakrishna Ghosh