A marquee clash awaits the fans of the Indian Premier League between defending champions Gujarat Titans with the 4-time winners Chennai Super Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. It’s a full house and the clash will trigger the IPL festival 2023. While there was always chatter about how the Mega Auction derailed the established teams in 2022. With a year gone by, teams will have connected well with their new set of players and the advantage or a slight edge given to the New Franchise will not be so visible this time around. 

We kick start the IPL 2023 season with two successful teams with contrasting styles of play. Their play suits their teams. Defending champion Gujarat Titans will take on 4-time IPL winners and one of the most successful IPL teams Chennai Super Kings in Ahmedabad.

While it is too early to say how good the Gujarat Titans are but we can safely say that they are up against a very successful and consistent team in CSK.

Both teams are great looking teams on paper and the conditions at the Ahmedabad Stadium will suit both styles of play.

Gujarat will be led by the current India Standin captain, Hardik Pandya and Chennai Superkings will be led by the former worldcup winning captain of India MS Dhoni.

Gujarat will bank on their batting and bowling specialists while CSK will bank on their allrounders to play a significant role in the game.

Being placed in the same group, this is the only time both these teams will meet in the group stage of the tournament as they are in the same group.

Teams have not managed to bring the entire squad together yet as some of the international players are yet to arrive due to their international commitments. So, we may not get the best playing 11 on the from both sides.

Chennai Super Kings will be captained by MS Dhoni while Hardik Pandya will lead the Gujarat Titans.

Gujarat Titans vs Chennai Super Kings

Match Details

Venue: Narendra Modi Stadium

Time: 7:30 PM IST

Day & Date: March 31, Friday

Match: 01

Pitch Report Details

Ahmedabad is a relatively new venue for both teams and Gujarat will not get any home advantage.

There are 5 black soil pitches and 6 red soil pitches in the Narendra Modi Stadium. While the black soil pitches offer assistance to bounce, pace and movement, the red soil tends to assist the spinners. Gujarat Titans will like to take advantage and play on the Black soil. This will also put Chennai Superkings on the backfoot as they would prefer the Red Soil pitches and would feel they are in cheapauk.

With the ongoing summer and the afternoon sun beating on the ground, pitches will tend to dry off quickly and will still assist spinners. Dew will play a part in this IPL as this year, the heat is expected to be more.

In the past few matches played here at the Narendra Modi Stadium, spinners have dominated and batters have found it difficult to cope with the slowness of the pitch in the middle overs. The venue has seen some low-scoring games as well. The bigger boundaries in the stadium keeps the scoring honest.

Updated: March 29, 2023 18:00 PM IST

By Raghunath Nair

IPL 2023: Gujarat Titans vs Chennai Super Kings: Preview, Predicted XI, Fantasy Tip

Defending Champions Gujarat Titans will go favourites for this clash, but do not discount Chennai Superkings. CSK will be led by MS Dhoni for the last time and this is motivation enough for the Chennai team to play above their potential.

David Miller will not be available for the first game and this would be a major drawback for the Titans as the team relies on the southafrican to finish the games for them or setup the score while batting first. The West Indies Players, Alzarri Joseph and Odean Smith will join the team at the nick of time but will not get practice time which may lead to them being disconnected. High chances only 1 of the two will play.

Mathew Wade will have to bat lower down the order to compensate the absence of David Miller. There will be a race between Wridhiman Saha and KS Bharat for the Opening slot which we believe would first go to the senior player who did well for GT last year.

Sri Lankan Players for CSK will not be available for the first match so Maheesh Theekshana, Matheesha Pathirna will not be available

South African player Sisanda Magala will also be not available for the first match.

Ahmedabad pitch may assist pace, so CSK may opt for Pretorius and may come as first change bowler after the new ball ballers . Pretorius will be the only go to death bowler in the CSK rank

With some of the CSK Social media feeds, there is a high chance that Hangarekar may be drafted in the playing 11 for his all-round ability

Confirmed Best Playing 11 for Gujarat Titans:

Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha [wk], Kane Williamson, Hardik Pandya [c], Abhinav Manohar, Matthew Wade, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Shivam Mavi, Alzarri Joseph & Mohammed Shami

Confirmed Best Playing 11 for CSK:

Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Ben Stokes, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni [c&wk], Dwaine Pretorius, Deepak Chahar, Simarjeet Singh & Tushar Deshpande.

Top Fantasy Dream Players for GT vs CSK:

IPL 2023: GT Vs CSK Full Squads

Gujarat Titans 

Abhinav Manohar, B Sai Sudharshan, David Miller, Kane Williamson, Shubman Gill,  KS Bharat, Matthew Wade (o), Wriddhiman Saha , Urvil Patel, Hardik Pandya (c), Jayant Yadav, Odean Smith , Rahul Tewatia & Vijay Shankar,. Alzarri Joseph (o), Darshan Nalkande, Joshua Little (o), Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Noor Ahmad (o), Pradeep Sangwan, R Sai Kishore, Rashid Khan (o), Shivam Mavi & Yash Dayal

Chennai SuperKings

Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Bhagath Varma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Subhranshu Senapati, Devon Conway, MS Dhoni (c), Ajay Mandal, Ben Stokes, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner (o), Moeen Ali, Nishant Sindhu, Ravindra Jadeja, Shaik Rasheed & Shivam Dube, Deepak Chahar, Maheesh Theekshana, Matheesha Pathirana (o), Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Solanki, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Simarjeet Singh, Sisanda Magala, Tushar Deshpande

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