After slumping to their first defeat of the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) against Mumbai, MS Dhoni-led Chennai will look to bounce back strongly and get back to winning ways when they take on Punjab at MA Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday.
Both the teams will head into the clash with three wins from four games they have played so far.
Chennai registered three successive wins against Bangalore, Delhi and Rajasthan before suffering a 37-run loss at the hands of Rohit Sharma's Mumbai in the last match.
Ravichandran Ashwin-led Punjab, on the other hand, sealed victories against Rajasthan, Kolkata and Delhi while their only defeat in the 2019 IPL so far also came against Mumbai.
However, Punjab are currently standing a place above Chennai at the second spot because of a better net run rate.
Meanwhile, the pitch at the Chepauk will be in focus yet again after it drew criticism from both MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli after Bangalore were bowled out cheaply for 70 runs in the opening match of the tournament.
It will be interesting to see whether hard-hitting Caribbean batsman Chris Gayle will make a return to Punjab's Playing XI after missing the side's clash against Delhi due to a back injury.
For Chennai, all-rounder Dwayne Bravo is doubtful for the game against Ashwin's side agyet sustaining a hamstring injury against Mumbai.
The two teams are as follows:
Chennai: MS Dhoni (captain & WK), Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Murali Vijay, Kedar Jadhav, Sam Billings, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Shorey, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Rituraj Gaikwad, Dwayne Bravo, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir, Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Mohit Sharma, K M Asif, Deepak Chahar, N Jagadeesan (wk), Scott Kuggeleign.
Punjab: Ravichandran Ashwin (capt), Chris Gayle, Lokesh Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Mayank Agrawal, Karun Nair, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, David Miller, Sam Curran, Varun Chakaravarthy, Nicholas Pooran, Moises Henriques, Hardus Viljoen, Darshan Nalkande, Sarfaraz Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Agnivesh Ayachi, Harpreet Brar, Murugan Ashwin, Andrew Tye, Ankit Rajpoot, Mandeep Singh, Simran Singh.
