The Next Gen Duel: Rutu vs Gill | CSK vs GT Preview | R1 Round UP | R Ashwin

Hi, hello, and welcome back. This is the review after the first round of matches, along with the preview of CSK vs. GT. As I already said in the previous preview, the segments consist of “Just think about it” and “One family, one home." We’ll add another round as a recap of all the matches that have been played so far. As we are speaking, GT and MI have played a high-quality game. Of course, we’ll do our usual CSK vs. GT, but we’ll do a recap of the five matches done so far and see which teams h

ave points to ponder about and players to watch out for in the future. Are you clear? Yes. We’ll go to our recap. As usual, you have reviewed CSK vs. RCB on every Tamil YouTube channel possible. Do you remember? We were raving about Fizz after CSK took him to the auctions. If Pathirana becomes fit again, do you think they’ll rest Theekshana and play both Fizz and Pathirana? What do you think? As we talked in the preview, the first match last year was a high-scoring affair at Chepauk, with 217 an

d 205. And we both discussed that 190 looks to be a defendable target. If RCB had hit 190 also, CSK would have chased it with a little bit of difficulty; 173 on that pitch with that batting line-up that can play spin well is impossible to defend. With another rule in play now, a left-arm spinner cannot bowl to a leftie batter, and the same is true for the right. And this makes it even more difficult for Mayank Dagar to bowl his quota. Even if CSK loses the match, they won’t change the line-up. I

f you think they will, you are mistaken, and if I review it, I’ll be mistaken. Theekshana in Chennai hasn’t picked wickets, but his economy isn’t that bad either. And with Santner giving that batting, I would really suspect Santner coming in even though it won’t happen. You told us how Mustafizur’s cutters would be effective here, and we don’t know when Pathirana will be back. He gave a man-of-the match performance. And if he plays the same way for the next two matches, especially in Chennai, ho

w can we squeeze Pathirana in? So I don’t see Chennai changing the combination unless they feel the fizz isn’t fizzing. Superb. Bowling. He releases the off-cutters like this. So if he performs well in the next match also, I think CSK will go with the same playing XI. Even the rest of the tournament. I want to add in 2-3 things. You will be talking about the numbers in detail, and we’ll also address the left arm spinner-to-leftie issue. But I thought we'd start with the Chepauk pitch. I was so h

appy when I saw that pitch. It took me back to my CSK days in 2010–11. It had so much bounce and carry. You saw that ball that Rachin Ravindra top edged that went to six over a fine leg off Alzarri Joesph or Siraj? I don’t remember. It has been years since I saw that happen at Chepauk. Complete credit goes to the curator. I know him personally. Ramesh is from Tirupur. He brought back the red soil wicket. It was so heartening to see. And also, Faf told us in the toss that wickets slow down with t

ime, like a typical Chennai surface. Faf started playing with CSK only after this 2011 period. He hasn’t seen the old Chennai surface. So the typical opinion of everybody is that this Chennai pitch will rag and get slower. But the pitch surprised everyone. Faf Du Plessis batted extraordinarily in the powerplay, hitting as much as possible. But his wickets turned out to be the turning points of the match. Because if I felt, if he had played, the middle phase would have been wicketless and they wo

uld have crossed 200. Dinesh Karthik also gave an honest admission post-first inning that they played well and recovered honestly, but 170 was too little. What do you think? You said it very well. According to the algorithm, you need a blistering start in the first six overs at Chepauk. We already talked about how Kohli is going to approach batting, set the base until 14 overs, and then explode. Faf did the right thing for the team. With this start, when Faf gets out, my number 3 would be Camero

n Green. I am not saying this because Patidhar has failed. Patidhar played Test cricket. Unfortunately, his confidence will be low after a series of low scores. And they made Maxwell come out in the powerplay. The basics are wrong here. After two quick wickets, Maxwell was on the crease when Kohli never got a strike in the powerplay. In that situation, you could have promoted Anuj Rawat. I told you Anuj Rawat had a great end towards the end of last season and he has something to look forward to,

but you dismissed me, saying he’s a young kid who cannot handle the pressure. You saw his batting? He’s making a case to be in the top 4 of the RCB batting line-up. He also opened for RCB before. Talent is never the question. How many matches has he played so far for RCB? 340 matches? What question is this? Tilak Varma created an impact for MI in his first season. Didn’t he have the skill? He did that because he got backing from his team for the rest of the season, whereas Anuj Rawat or Mahipal

Lomror never got the chance to play a continuous series of matches for the same team in the same position throughout the season. I am not denying your point, PDogg. We cannot compare Lomror and Anuj Rawat. Lomror has been on the circuit for years. There is a plateau phase in the life of every player. They have to cross it quickly. Lomror has been playing for years, whereas Rawat is a new kid on the block. He came first to RR. Everybody raved about his talent. He went to RCB the next season beca

use Virat loved his ball-striking ability. He opened for RCB but couldn’t create an impact. Then he was benched. But last year, he finished amazingly. Amazing batspeed. I am telling you after watching that, but I am not denying what you said. You said that Lomror has been around for a long time now. But on how many teams had he gotten a consistent run at the same spot for 10–11 matches? That is the pressure. Anuj Rawat finished this math very well. Tomorrow, he might get promoted to number 4. I

sn’t that good? He is a leftie in a top-right bat-heavy RCB line-up. Definitely good. He has the skill. The problem here is that if he doesn’t perform for two matches, either he gets dropped or demoted. After Kohli,the Indian batter with the highest number of runs scored by an Indian batter for RCB is Rahul Dravid (928 runs), who is right now the coach of the Indian team. So your point is that they aren’t getting a long run. You only follow RCB more than me. I am asking Ash as a cricket nut. You

r cricket observation is that Anuj Rawat is a great player. If he fails for two matches, you as a coach should understand that he has the stuff to succeed even though he had a few off matches and persist with him. Will you do that? Or drop him after two matches after rating him so highly. This is like the time we faced in KXIP. We backed Mayank Agarwal so much and backed him to play at 3, even though Gayle was playing well for us. He also put in decent short blitzkriegs for us. In the same year,

many people were asking him to be dropped, but we backed him to play. He played for three years straight. Didn’t create great impacts for us other than the short ones. In the fourth year, the league was shifted to Dubai, and Mayank Agarwal was synonymous with runs and vice versa. Unfortunately, cricket is a game of timing, his luck, his comfort, his space, and his mindset With just cricketing reasons, if we back a talented player to the team, we will definitely get results. But for an overload

of reasons, such as getting above the table and franchise pressure, which raises questions, If you lose two matches, they are going to ask you questions on how to climb the spots from there. That desperation will make you make a move that might make a dent in a player’s career. Kohli and Faf are going to open. You cannot push them down. They are marquee players, renowned players. You can’t change Maxwell’s position. So they inadvertently have to make a newbie play two spots down. I have spoken t

o so many batters and so many cricketers. It’s all about role clarity —a player, if given a number and a role for the entire season, is comfortable. If it keeps changing continuously, they aren’t comfortable, and it’ll affect their performances as well. It is very difficult to realise that because we are desperate to get results. This is why CSK is doing so well. Role clarity is so clear. Rachin Ravindra can play his game, and Rahane can play his game at 3. Dube is an impact player who can take

down spinners. That’s all! Rahane had an average domestic season. But he’ll bring out all his guns, blazing for CSK. Because he has been communicated about his role at 3 and what he had done last year, they won the title. A franchise should have that confidence. That is the reason, when I see a certain franchisee that keeps on changing many things, a young person will be under a lot of pressure. If he scores under that pressure, imagine how skilled he should be. So he should have already played

30 matches for the team? Did he? nope. The same Anuj Rawat might fail two more matches and end up warming the bench. I request that RCB please not do that. That is the issue here. Maxwell is a golden-egg-laying duck. If you get greedy, you aren’t going to reap the benefits. When you are going at 10 an over with 2 quick wickets and you know Jadeja and Theekshana are going to come next, Anuj Rawat should be there at 4. I am not saying because he scored runs. A left-hander should have been promoted

. Another thing is that I told you that Mayank Dagar is a great bowler. He bowled a great spell yesterday. But he’s a left-armer. He can’t bowl with a left-handed bat, no? Nothing like that PDogg; the team might have feared Dube might have connected spin and chose to go the fast bowling way. Won’t you do it the same way? Won’t you make Alzarri Joseph bowl bouncers once you see Shivam Dube on the crease? This is all hindsight talk. I won’t care about anyone. I am asking you a question. You are si

tting in the RCB dugout. Shivam Dube is coming in to bat. Mayank Dagar has bowled a good spell without wickets. You have Joseph, Siraj, and Green. Won’t you ask them to bounce it short to him and threaten him? I’ll definitely do it in the first over, make him take the backfoot, and I’ll make Maxwell bowl the second over, if not Mayank Dagar. When somebody had rattled you, you would want to get out of jail. If Maxwell had bowled, they would have tried to release the pressure, and it might have go

ne either way—a 20-run over or a wicket. But then all three overs were bowled the same way. He struggled with the first six balls; they kept hitting his body, and he couldn’t connect properly. But then, once their plan was visible to him, he stood upright and connected it easily. I would beg to differ here. That Maxwell over went for just seven runs, even after a six from Jadeja. Dube got 3–4 dot balls. I am not going there. But once Jadeja started controlling the short ball and played it down t

he ground, Dube got the wavelength to bat Until then, all the balls kept ballooning within the circle. Jadeja changed the game. Otherwise, the game would have been close. The game is over. This is just us reviewing what went wrong. The moral of the story is “Don’t overdo anything." I’ll ask you another question. He was struggling with your short balls for three deliveries. All the bowlers are 140+ bowlers. Did they try to bluff the batter with a straight yorker? Nope. Forget about bringing a spi

n. You are a spinner yourself. Even though he hadn’t had much experience, when he had bowled two beautiful overs, that was the time you trusted him and went back to him to give him confidence. He might have gone for 20, but let him learn. When RCB plays KKR at the Chinnaswamy with KKR going left bat heavy, will they drop Mayank Dagar? After the Punjab Kings in Bengaluru, they are playing KKR. If Dagar picks up five wickets vs. PK, will he be dropped vs. KKR? I am not being harsh here; I am askin

g a cricket question. Even if a bowler doesn’t bowl well, we have to bat him. In the current T20, anybody can go for 20 runs. That's not the point. But if I watch the 2 overs by Mayank Dagar as a captain or the management, I’ll definitely say that he bowled well, with a with a good change of pace and line, good control, and good runs on the ball. I already told you that he is a great bowler. RCB got a good deal with Mayank Dagar, but by giving Shahbaz, they lost a left bat. We’ll talk about the

other games, including PDogg. Some classic games. The Punjab Kings rolled over the Capitals. It was tight. If Warner had gotten Livingstone’s catch, the game would have been different. But it was to everyone’s shock that Warner missed a catch. And many people had complaints that the sighting was a problem in the new stadium. And the wicket is just like Mohali, but a little slower. And there was a classic game that night with SRH and KKR. We'll also discuss the other two matches. Where are you s

tarting from? My biggest shock in the DC match was the omission of Prithvi Shaw. I don’t know why; I don’t know if there’s an injury. The reports show that he is fully fit and not being considered. That DC team looks very weak on paper. Both teams cannot push for the playoffs. Punjab did something very well: they promoted Sam Curran and kept Livingstone for the death. Even though Sam Curran started off slow, he exploded later. This is innovation! I don’t have cricketing knowledge if I say Livin

gstone doesn’t have skill! But it is his lack of clarity that is a problem. You can make him successful if that is clear. He was playing at numbers 3 and 4 for MI Cape Town, and it was an all-round flop. They weren’t trying anything and ended up in last place at the SA20. Punjab made him play at 6 and got back his confidence in return. Their next match is with RCB at Chinnaswamy, which he will relish. So full marks to Punjab there. Delhi has a lot of catching up to do. They have three Indian sea

mers. Andreich Nortje is still playing the CSA T20 Challenge here at SA. Jhye Richardson is injured. I don’t know what happened to Ishant Sharma after those two overs. The bowling attack looks very light. Axar Patel is not a wickettaker but still a bank. If Kuldeep Yadav doesn’t come to the picture, they cannot defend any target. Things are not looking great for Delhi. SRH looks like they are going to be stuck in a quadratic equation by itself. You are an educated engineer. What do you mean by a

n educated engineer? Do you mean that there are uneducated engineers? No, I am trying to tell the world you finished the degree before coming into cricket and didn’t drop midway. There is no hope for good things in the world. As I said before, SRH looks like they are going to be stuck in a quadratic equation by itself. They got Travis Head for 6.8 crore. It looks like they got him here on a paid vacation with his family in a 5-star hotel rather than to play matches. They celebrated like this af

ter winning the bid for him. They have to understand some things. Once they got Cummins, Natarajan, and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, there was no space for Marco Jansen. Bottomline. Then you have Shahbaz Ahmed and Washington Sundar. Shahbaz hit 16 runs in five balls. And gave up 14 runs in 1 over. Washi is someone who bowls 3 overs for 21 runs consistently. Another example is Axar Patel. Kolkata was struggling by half the innings. Russell, as you said, who looked in great touch, took them to that total w

ith a blinder of an inning. They were struggling at 5 down with only Salt on the crease. If Washi had been there, they wouldn't have gotten to that score. I will ask any cricket experts. Who will predominate Shahbaz over Sundar? Washi is the first name to be written on the team sheet in this case. The race is only between Mayank Markande and Shahbaz. There is no place for Marco Jansen. It is very simple. He relies on a tall bounce. He doesn’t have toe-crushing Yorkers in his name. He is not that

pacy, either. Some balls will be quick, but he maintains speed at 130. When Cummins is there, he doesn't have a spot. If Travis Head had been on the line-up at the top instead of Jansen, the team would have been much stronger. Next, they are playing against the Mumbai Indians. They will drop Jansen off there and bring in Farooqui. Then they will drop Farooqui and bring in Hasaranga. Then they will bring Travis Head after Hasaranga. By this time, their season would be over. They have gotten a ve

ry good side, but they are just fiddling around too much. What a knock by Klaasen! It was insane! His shots were unbelievable. There was one ball that Varun CV bowled, and it didn’t meet his bat properly and landed in midfield. I felt bad for Varun. Other than that, he didn’t give anyone a chance. He hit sixes all around the ground. He hit a six above covers. Unbelieavble. Easily the best T20 batter coming around in world cricket. There is no doubt about it. There was no shot that he couldn’t pl

ay. I don’t know how he missed that slot delivery by Harshit Rana Of course, it was very brave of Rana to bowl a cutter, and the ball stayed low. Huge raps for Klaasen. A word on the MI vs. GT game and the RR vs. LSG game. I already told you. RR’s batting line-up scares me. 190 on that pitch is unchaseable. They have Trent Boult. Sandeep Sharma is bowling beautifully. Other than this, they have two spinners who are bowling in the death. Ash bowled a turner to pick Stoinis. They have all bases co

vered, and that is why I am putting my money on them. A power-packed batting line-up. Sanju Samson’s innings were so beautiful to watch. Another beautiful strategy by RR was playing with three foreigners and keeping Powell and Burger on the bench. If things didn’t go well, I am sure Powell would have gotten in. But since batters did their job perfectly, they made Burger play. That is a strategy for you! I am very confident that RR will be in the playoffs. I am still standing by it. A word on th

e GT vs. MI game. An absolute classic, tbh. A slow burner in Ahmedabad. Usually their pitches are straight-up 200 pitches. It turned very well. MI also played an extra spinner in Naman Dhir. Yet again, you have to give it to their scouting. He looks really good with the bat and ball. Dewald Brevis came in as SKY’s replacement, as you said. But with that slow wicket, with Mohit Sharma’s cutters and Umesh Yadav’s experience, GT stole 2 points from MI. We’ll touch up on this before the CSK vs. GT p

review. The main reason for that theft is our Tamil lion, Sai Kishore. When the match was going Mumbai’s way, a brilliant 4 overs, 24 runs, and 1 wicket when Rohit Sharma was looking in ominous form. My algorithm showed six runs ahead when they were at 15 overs, and they were supposed to chase comfortably in the last over. Sai Kishore was the one who opened those gates. Rashid Khan also didn’t pick up any wickets. If Sai Kishore had given up 35 runs in his four overs, the game would have been ov

er. There is no point talking about the talent scouting in Mumbai; Naman Dhir didn’t look like a debutant at all. He looked like Hardik Pandya. He played a flat-batted pull, an arrogant shot, and an offspin too. There is no point in talking about their scouting. What disappointed me was their team selection to play Luke Wood instead of Thushara. It was a big mistake, in my opinion. Jasprit Bumrah stood up on one side. If Thushara or Maphaka were on the other side, the story would have been very

different. I am not here to blame anybody, but I understand picking Wood over an inexperienced Maphaka. But Thushara is making waves with his Yorkers and wicket-taking abilities. I feel that was all the difference. Wood bowled only 2 overs. One went for six runs, and he got plundered in the other. Thushara’s Yorkers would have been top-class. No matter what, GT’s play was excellent. I still feel that they will struggle to get into the playoffs without anybody like Pandya or Shami, but they are s

upporting them beautifully with Azmatullah Omarzai. But I have my reservations about Spencer Johnson. Everything else is okay with them. I just want to see how Spencer develops as a bowler. They played on a Slow surface. There is no Shami or Hardik to give them that all-around ability. They are a little lower on their batting average compared to last year. So they gave a slow wicket, used Sai Kishore and Rashid, and went through. But I felt they missed a trick by not playing Noor Ahmed instead o

f Spencer Johnson. He’ll be playing in Chennai. Okay. Chennai vs. GT. In this segment of “Just think about it,” what do CSK and GT need to think about? They are both coming off wins in match 1. The last time GT played in Chennai, they really had a tough time. It was a slow-moving surface. This time, things have changed. Chennai will have a bouncy surf. There will be a variety of GT spinners. All in all, I feel they will play on a very similar pitch to what they played against RCB. Your thoughts?

As far as I know, they will go with a similar pitch. Another point that you’ll also agree on is that Rashid Khan’s bowling lacked drive as he was coming back from a back injury. He tried pushing the ball too much. His pace was not 86–87 because there was no back drive at all. He is an open-chested leg spinner who doesn’t go to side-on positions at all to generate air speed. His back only helps him. Because of the injury, his release was earlier because of the lack of back drive. His speeds were

only 86–87. His strength is bowling fast on the deck. We discussed this live, do you remember? Actually, his arm is hyperextended. Generally, leg spinners will have their arms here at 45 degrees. But Rashid Khan, like me, has his arm near his ears like this. So in hyperextension, the speed gets generated if you roll your wrists Again, if you release it early, the speed will be lower. Of course, it has to come with a little bit of hesitancy. Surgery isn’t a joke. He’ll be back in no time; he’ll

pick up during the tournament. The IPL is long, and Rashid is too good a bowler to miss out on. He missed lengths and lines, which is surprising for a bowler of this caliber, but it is only a matter of time before he picks it up. You explained it beautifully. In an early release, your legs will be on the fuller side. Pre-injury, his length was always a little on the shorter side. Unless a person has great backfoot play, it isn’t easy to muscle Rashid Khan on the backfoot. So many people have got

ten caught and fallen prey to his pace. but because of the dragging lengths now and the decreased pace, batters can pick it up like Brevis did yesterday. It isn’t easy to do that vs. Rashid. He’ll get better as the tournament progresses, definitely. In my opinion, CSK should play on the same wicket or on a much similar wicket, which is 190 par. GT has batting, but CSK batting has the destruction. Their spinners can be matched either way. The pitch only matters. The team should be aggressive in t

he first six overs and shouldn't lose wickets until the 10th over. In the case of RCB, by the end of the 12th over, they were at 79-5, while CSK were at 109-3. The match was over there itself. The powerplay should be aggressive. Consolidation between 7 and 10. 11–15 should have slow momentum, and then you have to launch with wickets in hand. Even though it won’t happen, ideally I want to see Shardul Thakur instead of Tushar Deshpande and Santner instead of Theekshana. But they won’t make any cha

nges because they are backing their name, CSK. We are asking for a change, but Tushar Deshpande might end up taking 3–27 in the next match. Chances are always there. The Theekshana-Santner debate will go on and on. Shardul is high quality, but Tushar Deshpande was a match winner last season. Even though Tushar gave up 40 runs in this match, he gave a good comeback in the end when he bowled wide to DK. Dhoni will definitely give value to that. He had one big over, giving away 25 runs. If you take

that off, 3-22 isn’t a bad performance. But overall, 4 over 47 is a different scene. Lord, in a batting situation like Pandya was in yesterday, we might still have a chance because he has that ability. So it gives us an extra dimension. There is no point in discussing this further. They are going to play the same team. Even though anyone can push Santner for Theekshana, it is not going to happen. GT will also make one change, taking Spencer Johnson out and Noor Ahmed in. because they got Umesh

Yadav, Azmatullah Omarzai, and Mohit Sharma as impact subs. That is three fast bowlers. Sai Kishore will bowl very well in Chennai. Rashid Khan, whatever it is, isn’t going to go for 40 runs in his spell. He’ll still find a way to be decent. Noor Ahmed has been a revelation. Azmatullah Omarzai asked many questions with a new ball. Naman Dhir hit him, yes, but his skill is definitely great. So I am expecting Noor Ahmed to be there in place of Spencer. And even Afghanistan introduced Noor Ahmed, p

articularly in Chennai, and he did very well here. So this is the only change I am expecting One thought process. With Rachin Ravindra, Shivam Dube, and Jadeja—three left-handers—is there a case for Jayant Yadav? You mentioned Sai Kishore in the in the last match. There was good help for the deck bowlers last match at Chepauk. If my guess is right, Spencer Johnson might continue, and Jayant Yadav might come in. because they’ll require the services of three spinners. And even though Sai Kishore.

He had a fantastic game against Mumbai; of the 24 balls that he bowled, 80 percent were to right-handers Dewald Brevis and Rohit Sharma. In case they attack early on, they can bring Jayant to Rachin. They have played Jayant Yadav already. One easy solution that they can do is to play Mohit Sharma instead of Spencer Johnson in the XI and bring in Jayant Yadav as an impact sub. Headache over. You have enough batting line-up. You’ll play with three foreigners, which is perfectly fine. There is no p

oint in playing Vijay Shankar so low down the order. If Kane Williamson isn’t there, Vijay Shankar should bat at number 4, according to me. And Omarzai at 5, followed by Tewatia and Miller. So you are wasting Vijay Shankar, in my opinion. There is no hard-and-fast rule that you have to play four foreigners. So they can do this and even bring Kane Williamson in if the team is in trouble to ship on a slow pitch. That option, too, is available. Or they can take the RR way. If the batting average hi

ts 190 and Kane’s services aren’t needed, they can bring in Jayant Yadav. You have Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmed, Jayant Yadav, and Rashid Khan. 4 spinners. Four spinners aren’t needed. It was not the most significant turning point of the previous match. I think it’ll just come down to using Sai Kishore and Jayant Yadav. If Noor doesn’t play, you can make Sai Kishore, Jayant, and Rashid play and bring in both Spencer Johnson and Kane. Honestly speaking, you are strategically right in this. But someone

who has been warming the bench all year last year and has bowled in match 1 extraordinary under pressure. Will they break his rhythm with this decision? I am not talking about that. I want him to play. Jayant, Sai, and Rashid are all 3 in the XI. Sit Noor out and play Kane and Spencer. That might also happen. We are both providing different solutions. But with the way Noor has bowled and with Rashid Khan particularly coming from injury he will be the leading bowler, and that will be bloody-thre

atening. CSK cannot be shaken by skin, but he'll still prove his worth. Jayant, too, has been right on spot. He also has the experience and skill to bowl four overs and 30 runs. And he is not a mug with a bat. He has a test century against England. It feels like I’m hearing Sunny G all of a sudden. Whenever I come to bat, he always says, “He’s no mug with the bat; he has hit five test centuries.” That is his standard line. I wish to get that line from him. You also said the same thing. Jayant an

yway comes to bat low down the order. Okay PDogg. We’ll talk about the XIs of both teams. And we’ll go to our final verdict. Noor should be in the XI, according to me. Same team for CSK? I wish they brought Santner instead of Theekshana, but I don’t think it’ll happen. Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi? And your favourite cotton bag is on the XI. They didn’t bench him. I always wanted them to play Mitchell as an impact sub, if not in the XI. Why would I drop him? You told me he'd be sitting outside w

ith the bib. I said CSK is not the team that sees a player based on the money they have spent, and it won’t be a surprise to see him warm the bench also. But since Rayudu isn’t there, Mitchell’s inclusion is necessary. I asked Dhruv Jurel and Kuldeep Yadav about Sameer Rizvi. They are rating him very highly. I really wanted to see how he plays. His 300 is there on the BCCI website. It is crazy-hitting. CSK is bringing a guy out of nowhere, which means he’s the real deal. He’s a great hitter on t

he ball. I watched him in SMAT also, but very briefly. As you said, GT’s squad will be based on Jayant Yadav’s inclusion or Noor Ahmed's inclusion instead of Spencer Johnson, as I said. That is the only question to be answered. Sai Kishore bowled, so he’s going to retain his place 100 percent. So these two questions should be answered. We will go to the “One family, one home” segment. Vital players on both sides. What are the matchups between CSK and GT? It's very simple. Who has the most strik

ing ability in the first six overs? Like how Faf did brilliantly for RCB. Azmatullah Omarzai is GT’s warhorse here, as he can swing the ball both ways. You can’t play unorthodox batting with him on the ball. He is going to be the vital cog for them. There are no second thoughts. Even though Ruturaj can be very good against spin, GT should go with Omarzai at one end and spin at the other end. Even though I keep repeating how good CSK is, they should take the aggressive route against all of the GT

spinners except Sai Kishore. Sai Kishore is like Jadeja. He’s going to keep his line and length constant, and still, wickets are going to fall. As you said with Santner, Sai Kishore is pausing for a second before completing his action. Many people aren’t seeing it. He is inviting them to play the wrong shot. So the CSK theory is to make sure that they can’t settle the GT spinners down. They should watch through Omarzai’s 2 overs in the PP; they can get to 190. Even though Gujarat’s batting line

-up isn’t bad, if CSK bats first and scores 190, it is going to be difficult for GT to chase. If GT bats first, they should score above 190. I don’t see them defending anything less. So GT should score above 190 to have a chance against CSK. If CSK scores 190, doesn't GT stand a chance? Yes. So 190 is the magic number at this particular venue Who else is in Gujarat other than Omarzai? You told me their batting wasn’t bad. But who is the lynchpin? No second thoughts; it’s Shubman Gill. This pit

ch will suit him. Sai Sudharshan will take 30 balls to play. David Miller also takes his time. Vijay Shankar and Omarzai are both going to hit from ball 1. Saha will look like he’s playing, but his strike rate will be just 110. Every boundary he hits, he compensates with a dot ball, and the cycle repeats. It looks like he created an impact when he got out, but his strike rate would have been 114. So the most important part of this batting line-up is that Gill should make sure he stays until the

14th over, and the rest of them should bat extremely aggressively. It’s very easy to sit here and say we are expecting 190. 190 in Chennai is very difficult. So their plan is to make Shubman Gill anchor the innings and then take it forward in the death with Tewatia like they played against Mumbai. It was beautiful to watch him hit sixes. So the most important thing to see is Gill’s ability to take it to 14 overs. Omarzai’s 2 overs in powerplay and Sai K’s 4 overs in the middle. This is the Gujar

at family. The CSK’s family consists of Jadeja’s 4 overs and Ruturaj's role, which’ is very similar to Gill’s role because all the other CSK batters have only one gear: Rachin, Shivam Dube, Mitchell, and Sameer Rizvi. Ruturaj should make sure Omarzai’s threat is gone. How Mitchell is going to attack the spinners also comes as part of the family. So it is Ruturaj, Mitchell, and Jadeja. My surprise in the last match was Rachin Ravindra, but at the same time, the least surprising was Rachin Ravindr

a. He looked like Kadhal Konden Dhanush from the 2nd half and came with an unbelievable bat swing. He generates a batspeed with just his wrists, and the ball goes running through the covers. He never had any nerve playing against RCB and gave it a clean start. Now Rachin Ravindra feels like an upgrade on the injury that struck Devon Conway. What do you think? In my opinion, Devon Conway is not a power hitter. He is a touch player. It’ll be great to watch him bat. An opponent team gets intimidate

d if somebody pulls them for a 100-metre six and a 90-metre six over midoff. Even though Conway is destructive in his own way, I don’t see CSK missing him. Simple question. Is Rachin Ravindra an update for Conway? Yes. So Conway isn’t needed anymore by CSK. Not really. Let him bowl, and then you’ll see another dimension. 2 overs, 17 runs coming up. Another reason why we don’t have to bring Santner in. He can be their left-arm spinner. So the final verdict is PDogg. What are your percentages for

CSK and GT? What are the chances the GT will topple CSK for 4 points, or will CSK cruise through? I won’t say cruise-through. They’ll have to fight it out. I said cruise through vs. RCB because of their spin strength, which stands in no comparison to RCB and RCB’s bowling woes, which we’ve already discussed. GT’s bowling isn’t weak at all. They’ll bury themselves if you start striking blindly. Still, CSK will go with an advantage of 56-44. I’m sure CSK will go unbeaten at the end of the day. How

much did you give for the CSK RCB game? Same 56-44. You said RCB is weak and GT is strong, yet your percentage is the same? I gave my explanation. You are cautious. When the result goes the other way, you’ll say you already saw that coming. And then, after CSK wins the match, you’ll put Aishwarya Rai’s photo on Twitter. You are a fraud. I am a huge Aishwaraya Rai fan of the Jeans movie. Don’t I look like a gullible, innocent man? I will never accept that you are innocent. I will use unparliamen

tary language against you offline. How is it 56-44 for both teams? If your algorithm is really true and you are an analyst, coach, and true Aishwarya Rai fan, put your inputs in and give me the right number. 56-44 is a good edge, Ash. But how can it be the same percentage for both matches? Is Prasanna playing it safe because he is scared? I am not playing it safe. RCB and CSK are two of my favourite teams. I was happy that CSK won and angry that RCB lost. But still, they lost to my brother. Is

CSK your brother? Yes. How is it 56 CSK 44 RCB? And 56 CSK 44 to a much stronger GT? RCB had a lower bowling edge. GT’s batting edge is a little low, in my opinion. So RCB’s batting is better than GT’s batting. GT’s bowling is better than RCB’s bowling. So draw the match at 44? Right? RCB’s batting has much more destructive capabilities than GT’s batting. GT’s bowling isn’t just better than RCB’s bowling. In your language, it is betttttttter. 56–44 because of that. In my language, they are a po

wer house! You saw how the Kings batted right. Wasn’t I right? So PDogg has given a 56-44 edge in favour of CSK. He won’t change from that. Let’s see. He also brought out his inner Sunny G. “Don’t forget. He got a 100” from Jayant Yadav. Let’s see if Jayant Yadav plays. Please let us know in the comments if you like this concept of review and preview. Thank you so much for joining me on this preview of CSK vs. GT. And a wrap-up.