KKR are unbeaten with 6 points from 3 games, while CSK have 4 points after two wins and as many defeats.
Defending champions Chennai Super Kings will expect a lot more from their top-order as they aim to get their campaign back on track against a power-packed Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL match in Chennai on Monday.
Back-to-back defeats will not create panic in the always-calm CSK dressing room but the management will be keen on fixing the flaws going ahead.
Skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad and the highly-rated Rachin Ravindra need to up their game to provide CSK the start they need in the powerplay. Gaikwad is striking at 118.91 while Ravindra will be itching to make an impact after not doing much in the previous two games.
CSK's leading run-scorer is Shivam Dube, with 148 runs, at an impressive strike rate of 160.86.
It remains to be seen if the young Sameer Rizwi is brought back into the team. The 20-year-old uncapped batter displayed promising intent in his six-ball 14 versus Gujarat Titans but a duck against Delhi Capitals in the subsequent game led to him being dropped against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Pacers Mustafizur Rahman and Matheesha Pathirana missed the last game due to different reasons, exposing the chinks in CSK's bowling attack. If they remain unavailable for the KKR game, CSK will need to think out of the box to make up for their absence.
Thus, the onus is on Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande and Mukesh Choudhary, alongside spinners Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja and Maheesh Theekshana.
KKR, who alongside Rajasthan Royals remain unbeaten in the tournament, have reaped rich dividends for their fearless approach with the bat. Having said that, the personnel in the KKR batting order allow them to bat at the same tempo throughout the innings.
Making Sunil Narine open again has proved a master stroke. Being the team's highest run-scorer this season, Narine is expected to give a tough time to the CSK bowlers. His opening partner, Phil Salt, has also aided the Trinidadian to a good extent.
The middle-order, comprising skipper Shreyas Iyer and Ramandeep Singh, needs to display a lot more consistency, while Andre Russell and Rinku Singh have excelled thus far.
Also, KKR's bowling so far has been impeccable; it has seen even contributions from Harshit Rana, Russell and Vaibhav Arora. Mitchell Starc and Varun Chakaravarthy are slowly finding their feet after an underwhelming show in the opening two games.
Overall, KKR's performance across departments has been flawless and they would not want to fiddle with their playing eleven for this encounter.
Given the unusual pitch behaviour at Chepauk so far, it could be another run-feast.
Squads (from):
Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Aravelly Avanish, Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, R S Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Nishant Sindhu, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Choudhary, Mustafizur Rahman, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Prashant Solanki, Shardul Thakur, Maheesh Theekshana and Sameer Rizvi.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (captain), KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
Match starts: 7.30 PM
