Riyan Parag needed only a moment under the Guwahati clouds to call correctly and send Chennai Super Kings in on a red-soil strip that had spent much of the morning under covers. “We’d have bowled as well,” admitted his opposite number Ruturaj Gaikwad, glancing at the still-heavy sky. Conditions, then, more or less dictated the opening decision.
Rajasthan have gone light on overseas names – just Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger and Shimron Hetmyer – but heavy on new blood. Bengal seamer Brijesh Jha (listed elsewhere as Brijesh Sharma; the squad sheet is doing the rounds with both spellings) gets a first IPL cap after an eye-catching Bengal Pro T20 League. The Impact-Player safety net is ready: Donovan Ferreira or Lhuan-dre Pretorius can slot in when the chase comes.
Chennai’s four overseas players – Matt Henry, Noor Ahmad, Jamie Overton and Australian all-rounder Matthew Short – bring the extra bowler Parag may have to manage later. Injuries to MS Dhoni and Dewald Brevis have shuffled the batting order and opened the door for wicketkeeper-batter Kartik Sharma. CSK paid INR 14.2 crore for him in December and the debut has arrived sooner than the think-tank expected. Their other INR 14.2 crore buy, Prashant Veer, waits among the Impact options.
Tactically, Gaikwad has seven bowling choices before he even considers the substitute card, with Noor pencilled in at No. 8. If the top order misfires, Sarfaraz Khan is the most likely plug-in.
Both clubs finished at the wrong end of the table last season. A fresh captain at one, a patched-up XI at the other, and a restart everybody seems slightly nervous about. Piyush Chawla summed up one micro-plot neatly: “Bishnoi bowled too quick last season,” he said in the build-up, while Ambati Rayudu spoke of a “‘fresh start'” for the leg-spinner at Rajasthan. Small tweaks, big hopes.
Squads
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Riyan Parag (c), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Brijesh Sharma/Jha. Impact subs: Donovan Ferreira, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Singh, Sushant Mishra, Tushar Deshpande.
Chennai Super Kings: Sanju Samson (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ayush Mhatre, Matthew Short, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Matt Henry, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed. Impact subs: Sarfaraz Khan, Prashant Veer, Rahul Chahar, Gurjapneet Singh, Ramakrishna Ghosh.
A new season, then. Nothing flashy promised, plenty still to prove.
