Must-win battle: Bottom-placed CSK take on SRH in IPL 2025

Imagine you haven’t watched IPL 2025 until now, and you suddenly glance at the points table - you'd be shocked, right?

Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings are sitting at the upper half of the points table, while Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings occupy the bottom two spots.

Chennai Super Kings are five-time title holders, while Sunrisers Hyderabad finished runner-up, last season. However, in the ongoing IPL 2025, they have combined to win four out of 16 matches. 

CSK and SRH’s performance this season perfectly exemplifies MS Dhoni’s perspective- ‘Sport is a great leveler.’ 

Regardless of all the previous achievements, sport can humble players and teams pretty quickly. 

Nitish Kumar Reddy made the world talk about him after his sensational performance in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The Indian batter is now having a terrible time with the bat in IPL 2025. Travis Head lit up the IPL last season but proved to be one of the biggest flops this season.

Dhoni’s remark also serves as a lesson that despite failures, you must keep your head high and never let that define you. Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings will come out on Friday with a similar mindset when they face each other in the 43rd match of IPL 2025. 

Mathematically, both teams still have a chance to reach the playoffs. However, the campaign for the team that loses this encounter will be all but over. 

For CSK, the focus will only be their next game against Hyderabad. After the loss to Mumbai Indians, MS Dhoni said they would 'try to plug in the holes.' 

Right now, though, there are quite a few holes to plug.

Should CSK persist with Rachin Ravindra, or should the latter make way for Dewald Brewis? 

Both youngsters, Shaik Rasheed and Ayush Mhatre, made promising starts in their debut outings. CSK could opt to open the innings with the two, followed by Dewald Brevis at three. The Yellow Army made a decent start in the last game but couldn’t capitalize in the middle overs.

Brevis can do that job perfectly should he play the next game. That said, they can bring in Sam Curran as the overseas all-rounder. He too can open the innings alongside Rasheed. With the game scheduled to be played at MA Chidambaram stadium, all three Ashwin, Jadeja, and Noor should make up the spin attack. 

Much like Chennai, the Sunrisers Hyderabad too have concerns to address. Despite inconsistent starts, there is little chance that they would tinker with the opening combination. With their chances of qualification still alive, Ishan Kishan might keep his place in the eleven. Heinrich Klaasen scored his first IPL 2025 fifty in the last game against MI and that should hold him in good stead. The Chennai turf is known to assist the spinners and hence, Klaasen’s role becomes crucial with the bat. Both the spinners, Rahul Chahar and Zeeshan Ansari, could be seen bowling in tandem for SRH on Friday. 

Playing XIs: 

Chennai Super Kings: 

Shaik Rasheed, Sam Curran, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Vijay Shankar, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana

Impact Sub: Ravichandran Ashwin 

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 

Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Aniket Verma, Pat Cummins (c), Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar, Zeeshan Ansari, Eshan Malinga

Impact Sub: Abhinav Manohar/Jaydev Unadkat

Who will win the CSK vs SRH IPL 2025 match? 

If CSK bat well against a struggling SRH bowling attack, the spinners will relish bowling in ideal conditions. CSK should go in as favourites to win the clash.