Chennai Super Kings' approach and plans haven't been fruitful in the 2025 edition of the IPL. When the plans and strategies don't work, the teams tend to make a change, when those changes don't yield results, they trigger a few more changes and this has been mostly the five-time champions' story of the tournament. After their combination and approach was rendered outdated, CSK have tried to blood in some fresh talent and youngsters but with the defeats piling up, the Men in Yellow haven't been able to arrest the downward slide.
After a couple of away games on the trot, the Super Kings are back in their familiar territory and it seems like the Super Kings have finally hit the transition button. Shaik Rasheed looked promising in a couple of games, Ayush Mhatre was sensational on his debut and it seems like another youngster might be on his way to the CSK limelight.
The young Delhi wicketkeeper-batter Vansh Bedi, who broke out during last year's Delhi Premier League (DPL), has been involved in multiple practice sessions in the build-up towards the Friday game and might get a look-in as CSK also look towards the future after and beyond MS Dhoni.
With Sunrisers Hyderabad's top-order being left-handed heavy, CSK are likely to retain R Ashwin in the playing XI but could have someone like Sam Curran back for Vijay Shankar to look after the proceedings in the powerplay after the Jamie Overton experiment didn't work during the field restrictions. Curran also gives the batting depth for CSK. Another possible change CSK may look at would be the overseas seamer spot with Matheesha Pathirana really struggling this time around.
Pathirana has had a good record against Heinrich Klaasen, who has been SRH's backbone in the middle-order and if they look at the match-up, the Sri Lankan could be backed for one more game, otherwise they have a brilliant backup option in Nathan Ellis, who was one of the top-performers for Australia in the Champions Trophy.
There's an option of Dewald Brevis for the Super Kings as well to bolster the middle-order but coach Stephen Fleming's pre-match press conference suggested that the young Proteas batter might have to bide his time on the sidelines.
CSK's predicted playing XI against Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shaik Rasheed, Rachin Ravindra/Vansh Bedi, Ayush Mhatre, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Vijay Shankar/Sam Curran, Jamie Overton, MS Dhoni (c, wk), Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana/Nathan Ellis, R Ashwin