Chennai, April 3 Punjab Kings (PBKS) won the toss and elected to bowl against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the seventh match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday.
“We are going to bowl first,” said PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer. “Since it is their first match at home, I think it is a fresh wicket. It would be a great thing to know how it plays. Based on that, I have made this decision.”
Speaking of his hand injury, Iyer said, “It is fresh. I just want to be positive in the way I talk. I just feel that if I say anything negative, it rubs off on my body. Just want to keep it cool. It gives us immense confidence. The motivation we got from the last game will rub off today. We just want to play to the best of our abilities.
On his batting, he said, “I feel that I just like to take on bowlers when the chips are down. That's the mindset shift I did last season. This season, I came with a similar mindset. The players clear the boundaries easily these days. That rubs off on everyone in the team. We are going with an unchanged team."
Saying he is happy to bat first, CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad said, “I think for me, it looks a bit on the drier side. Don't think it will change too much. It will remain the same. It's early April. Dew will be a factor. Runs on the board, and you can defend on this track.”
On their batting collapse in the last match against the Rajasthan Royals, Gaikwad said, “You just accept we had tough conditions to face. One of those games where you try to go positive and make mistakes. What has gone is gone. You just focus on this game and be better prepared. It's about taking it game by game. That is the key for CSK as a franchise, having that top order. Opening partnerships has given us a lot of success. Nothing better than having Sanju open with me. We have one change tonight. Prashant Veer comes in place of Matt Short.”
Playing XIs:
Punjab Kings: Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer (c), Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Impact substitutes: Suryansh Shedge, Priyansh Arya, Vishnu Vinod, Pravin Dubey, Hemant Brar
Chennai Super Kings: Sanju Samson (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ayush Mhatre, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Matt Henry, Khaleel Ahmed
Impact substitutes: Jamie Overton, Rahul Chahar, Matthew Short, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Gurjapneet Singh
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