Why Ravindra Jadeja not playing today: The defending champions have made a couple of changes to their Playing XI for this match.
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During the 55th match of the ongoing 15th season of the Indian Premier League between Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant has won the toss and chose to bowl.
“We want to chase. The season has been up and down. We are focusing on the positives. It is going to be a good match. I have learnt a lot from him [MS Dhoni]. Let’s see how I execute them,” Pant told Star Sports at the toss.
While DC opening batter Prithvi Shaw continues to miss out on action due to an illness, all-rounder Axar Patel has returned in place of all-rounder Lalit Yadav. Having registered his second duck in third innings this season, batter Mandeep Singh has been replaced by debutant batter Srikar Bharat.
Bharat, who had made his IPL debut for Royal Challengers Bangalore last season, has scored 191 runs in seven IPL innings at an average and strike rate of 38.20 and 122.44 respectively including a match-winning half-century against Delhi Capitals.
Why is Ravindra Jadeja not playing vs Delhi Capitals today?
Much like Pant, Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni also wanted to chase a total tonight but was “happy” with being asked to bat first in Navi Mumbai. Readers must note that defending champions CSK have won five and lost two out of their seven matches here over the years.
“We would have bowled first looking at our combination. But toss is not in our control. We had a bad season earlier but we made the most of it. It really helped us,” Dhoni told Star Sports at the toss.
Another similarity between both the captains was them confirming a couple of changes at the toss. “Jaddu [Ravindra Jadeja] is not fit and [Shivam] Dube comes in,” Dhoni added. Furthermore, Chennai also have the services of veteran all-rounder Dwayne Bravo who replaces Dwaine Pretorius in the XI.
In what has been a season where Jadeja relinquished captaincy midway, he is now missing a match due to an injury. In 10 IPL 2022 matches, Jadeja has picked five wickets and scored 116 runs to register dismal returns.
Dube, on the other hand, has been one of their best batters and is making a return after surprisingly missing a couple of matches against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
