Duo won the World Cup for India last week with a superb partnership. Now team-mates of 
Team India, Gautam Gambhir and Mahendra Singh Dhoni will take on each other in IPL 4 opening match at Chennai. Till last year Dhoni was most expensive Indian player but scene has changed dramatically this year, Gambhir emerged as a most expensive player in this year’s auction. KKR bought him for $2.4 million which is more than what any EPL player is earning. If price is high pressure will also be immense on Gambhir. On the contrary, Dhoni is under no pressure having won World Cup and he is defending champion and he will be leading same CSK team except Muralitharan who will don the Kochi jersey.
Looking at KKR, it is completely revamped side. It is representing Bengal but there are only two known players from Bengal in this team. Manoj Tiwari(Bengal’s Ranji Captain) and seasoned all-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla. Apart from 
these two there is no other known face from Bengal featuring in KKR team. It will be challenge for Gambhir to unite this new team and get the performance out of them. KKR failed to won the IPL title in last 3 seasons and to add to their woes they always remain in bottom 3 in last 3 seasons. Former KKR captain Sourav Ganguly already paid the price of KKR’s poor performance and not playing in this year’s IPL as he failed to find any owner. Alongwith Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan is also key addition to this KKR line-up and he also fetched record price in the auction and much of KKR’s success will depend on Gambhir and Yusuf. They will miss the services of Brett Lee and Shakib Al Hasan who will be playing bi-lateral series in Bangladesh and will join this team after that series. So little set-back for KKR initially but now they have the players who can put up good performance and help them to win the tournament this year.
KKR Team Info:
Kolkata Knightriders
Gautam Gambhir(Captain), Yusuf Pathan, Manoj Tiwary, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Jaidev Unadkat, Iqbal Abdulla, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manvinder Singh Bisla(Wicket-Keeper), Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Sarabjit Ladda, Shami Ahmed, Shreevats Goswami (Foreign) Jacques Kallis, Brad Haddin(Wicket-Keeper), Shakib Al Hassan, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Ryan ten Doeschate, James Pattinson.Dave Whatmore(Coach)
CSK is defending champion. CSK won the title in last season under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. They defeated Sachin Tendulkar led Mumbai Indians in last year’s IPL final to lift the t
rophy. CSK is having almost same team which played for them in last 3 seasons.The successfully retained all their star players except Muralitharan. Under Dhoni’s captaincy they look formidable and playing at home in opening match is also an advantage for them. Their batting line-up looks very good with the likes of Vijay, Badrinath, Raina, Dhoni are capable enough to score big and quick runs, Michael Hussey will join this team after Bangladesh series which will give them more solidity. The have good bowling line-up and most importantly they have readymade team which is playing them for last 3 years. Dhoni will go into this game with lot of confidence and that gives CSK big advantage over KKR which is relatively new team.
Man who will be missed most in this match is ‘DADA’ Sourav Ganguly. KKR will certainly miss him. New rivalries going to take place from today as with IPL 4 friends will turn into foes.
Team Info:
Chennai Super Kings
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha(Wicket-Keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Subramanium Badrinath, Joginder Sharma, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhinav Mukund, Aniruddha Shrikant, Ganapathi Vignesh, K Vasudevdas, Shadb Jakati, Vijaykumar Yomahesh, (Foreign) Albie Morkel, Michael Hussey, Dwayne Bravo, Doug Bollinger, Scott Styris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nuwan Kulasekera, Suraj Randiv, George Bailey, Faf du Plessis. Stephen Fleming(Coach)
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