IPL 2025: CSK aim to continue rebuilding as RR look to sign off on a high

With Delhi Capitals finishing its home games, the national capital will now host its first neutral game of this season, as per the revised tournament schedule. For CSK, its been a largely forgettable season where every aspect of their game crumbled spectacularly.

But amidst their rebuilding process going on, CSK have found some players who can serve the team well in future – 17-year-old Ayush Mhatre has been a standout batter with his proactive intent and showing what the side has missed in terms of power-play batting, where their run rate of 8.3 is the lowest amongst all ten teams.

With RR’s bowling at its lowest ebb, Mhatre, Shaik Rasheed, Urvil Patel and Dewald Brevis can be sure of making big runs, if Sunday’s run-fest is to go by. On the other hand, RR are now at the doorstep of their misery in IPL 2025 ending soon when they take the field for their final game. Its been a season where the Sanju Samson-led side have been totally out of sorts.

Just like CSK’s punt on tried and tested players backfired, RR’s decision making in the last year’s mega auctions raised big eyebrows. They let go of Jos Buttler and invested all of their batting in the Indian basket, while despite picking Jofra Archer, the bowling lacked significant depth, especially the absence of a genuine all-rounder and no prominent Indian bowler to headline the department.

In terms of batting, barring young Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal, RR have been unsatisfactory. It is all well summed up by them losing eight out of nine matches while chasing in the competition, including here to DC via a Super Over and in their 10-run loss to Punjab Kings on Sunday afternoon.

Losing matches from winnable situations and the middle order not doing their job of finishing games very well literally sums up RR’s sad tale in the tournament. One would definitely hope that they bow out on a high against a CSK side building itself for the future via youngsters.

When: Tuesday, May 20 at 7:30 PM IST

Where: Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi

Where to watch: Star Sports Network (TV) and JioHotstar (live streaming)

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (c & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Matheesha Pathirana, Noor Ahmad, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ayush Mhatre, Devon Conway, Khaleel Ahmed, Rahul Tripathi, Vijay Shankar, Shaik Rasheed, Anshul Kamboj, Mukesh Choudhary, Deepak Hooda, Dewald Brevis, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shreyas Gopal, Urvil Patel and Andre Siddarth.

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (c & wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Wanindu Hasaranga, Yudhvir Singh, Kunal Singh Rathore (wk), Lhuan-dre Pretorius (wk), Akash Madhwal, Ashok Sharma, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kumar Kartikeya, Kwena Maphaka, Maheesh Theekshana, and Tushar Deshpande.