IPL 2024 CSK vs RCB Preview - New season starts with clash between old foes

Key match stats

Pitch Stats – IPL records at the MA Chidambaram Stadium

Pitch stats from the 10 most recent IPL matches played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium

Team form CSK vs RCB

Recent meetings: IPL 2023 - CSK won by 8 runs

Weather

General Forecast: Dry and clear
Chance of dew: Moderate

Preview CSK vs RCB

Here we go! The start of IPL 2024 is finally upon us and what a game we have to kick things off. It's 2 of the biggest and best supported franchises in the tournament's history in CSK vs RCB going head to head and what is more, this match also sees arguably the most recent generation's 2 most iconic Indian cricketers in MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli taking to the field - it's going to be noisy!

While these 2 teams are certainly powerhouses of the IPL, it's CSK who have ultimately transformed that status into IPL titles and they'll be looking for a fast start here as they bid to defend their 2023 crown. Conversely, RCB have never won the title despite reaching 3 of the first 9 finals played. They've not made it that deep into the tournament since 2016 and despite the heroics of their top order batsmen in 2023, they failed to reach the playoffs for the first time in 4 years.

CSK too had a very effective top order in IPL 2023 but will be without half of their opening combination from last season with the news that Devon Conway will miss at least the first month of the tournament with an injured thumb.

CSK do have a another Kiwi left-hander in the form of Rachin Ravindra ready to go and he may well be thrown into the deep end. Ravindra and New Zealand did play a couple of their World Cup games at the Chidambaram Stadium and so conditions shouldn't be too much of a suprise although the atmosphere that will be generated by a capacity crowd will be on another level.

By contrast, RCB have been able to have a much smoother preparation. Kohli who missed the recent Test series against England due to the birth of his son, is ready to return and Bangalore look likely to have a full squad to pick from.

Whether that team is well balanced enough to succeed in this game or the season more generally remains to be seen. In my preview of RCB's chances this season I highlighted their potential weaknesses both against spin bowling with the bat and their lack of high quality slow bowling options themselves. Both these perceived short-comings are likely to be tested to the full in these conditions and against this opposition.

Apart from the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, the MA Chidambaram Stadium has proved the toughest pitch for batsmen to score against slow bowling on as the stats below show.

Stat	MA Chidambaram Stadium	Rank relative to other stadiums
Spin Average	25.1	2nd
Spin Economy	7.5	2nd
Spin S/R	23.1	3rd

Equally, Dhoni and this CSK team are experts at playing to those conditions and extracting favourable match-ups with their plethora of spin bowling options.

In fact, you have to go all the way back to the inaugural season of the IPL in 2008 for the one and only time that RCB have won at this venue. Since then they've lost 7 in a row including a humiliating defeat in the opening match of the 2019 season here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium where they were bowled out for just 70 as CSK's spinners ran riot taking 8 wickets between them. Will history repeat itself?

CSK v RCB head to head

RCB bowling vs CSK batting

Given their limited frontline spin options, RCB really need to strike early against this powerful CSK line-up. The man primarily standing in the way of them doing that will be Ruturaj Gaikwad whose general record against RCB's current seam attack is very good.

Gaikwad head to head T20 record vs RCB's pace attack

Within the RCB attack, Mohammed Siraj has the most experience of playing at the MA Chidambaram and he has generally performed well here at both ends of the innings.

Siraj T20 record at the MA Chidambaram Stadium

Beyond the question as to who will step up in the slowing bowling department, the other big concern for RCB is their bowling at the death. It was poor last season and as a result RCB opted to make wholesale changes to their line-up for 2024.

It looks likely that Alzarri Joseph will be given responsibility for closing out the innings as he did for parts of the last couple of seasons at GT. His record at the death against many of CSK's closers is impressive and RCB will need him to be just as effective again today.

Joseph T20 head to head record at the death vs Dube, Dhoni and Jadeja

CSK bowling vs RCB batting

It'll be interesting to see how early CSK opt to bring spin in against the RCB opening pair. The overall scoring rates of du Plessis and Kohli against slower bowling drops significantly and even last year where the partnership was hugely successful, they were limited to a strike rate of 121 in the powerplay against spin bowling compared to 169 when the quicks were on.

CSK are likely to have at least 3 spin options for this match including the likes of Theekshana and Moeen Ali who are both comfortable bowling in the powerplay.

Of course the great advantage of all those spin options is that it means CSK can bowl at least one of them early and not worry about limiting their stocks for later in the piece.

Glen Maxwell is by far RCB's most accomplished hitter of spin but CSK will be keeping Jadeja in reserve for when he bats safe in the knowledge that the left-armer has dismissed the Aussie 7 times in T20 cricket at an average of just 13.3. As the video below shows, Jadeja has a particular knack of beating Maxwell with his quicker, flatter trajectory.

Jadeja has bowled Maxwell 5 times in the IPL

At the back end of the innings it we'll see one of the most effective death overs bowling units from IPL 2023 against one it's least impactful batting line-ups.

RCB's lower middle order really struggled to clear the boundary at the end of the innings last year despite the fact that they played half their matches on a ground where 6 hitting was relatively common.

average death overs score at the MA Chidambaram Stadium

By contrast, the MA Chidambaram has always been a pitch where run scoring tends to get tougher as the game continues and against Pathirana and co it will be a real test of whether RCB have been able to come up with a different formula during this key part of the innings.

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All stats used in this blog are from my own databases which are freely accessible below
IPL player head to head records
IPL player records by stadium
IPL stadium records.
Images are my own with the exception of player profiles and highlights within GIFs which are not intended to infringe copyright- read full disclaimer. Background images are used under a creative commons license or otherwise royalty free.