IPL 2019 gets underway with two of the biggest names in Indian cricket squaring off against each other – MS Dhoni vs. Virat Kohli, CSK vs. RCB.
Dhoni and Kohli are the best of friends and have an excellent understanding between each other. They are, what you may refer to as, friendly rivals. We have seen Kohli clash with Gautam Gambhir in IPL, but you will never in a million years see him clash with Dhoni – someone who he respects like an elder brother.
Regardless, the rivalry between fans of RCB and CSK is a bitter one. After all, the teams represent two cities that have always competed against each other – Bangalore and Chennai. You may call this the South Indian Derby!
CSK start off as one of the two favorites to win the IPL. The other being Mumbai Indians. They are a popular side – perhaps the most popular team in the IPL. They are also the defending champions, who have been through a lot.
They were thrown out of the IPL for betting done by their owners – nothing to do with the players or management. They came back last year and won the IPL 2018.
About the players….
AB de Villiers will be the main draw. He is retired from international cricket, but is perfectly happy playing for RCB in the IPL. There is a strong possibility that this could be his last season in the IPL.
RCB have other decent international players such as Colin de Grandhomme and Tim Southee from New Zealand, and Marcus Stoinis and Nathan Coulter-Nile from Australia. Stoinis and Coulter-Nile will join the team after the Australia-Pakistan ODI series.
CSK have the same squad as before – they are not a team that believes in too much chopping and changing. But they now have Mitchell Santner in their squad, who is a very good T20 spinner who can bat as well – just the sort of players CSK look for.
The Teams
Chennai Super Kings: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Faf du Plessis, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 David Willey, 11 Mohit Sharma
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Moeen Ali, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Tim Southee, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Mohammad Siraj, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
