Big picture: Royals are under threat of losing steam

Without making drastic changes in personnel, CSK have become the most explosive team with the bat even though they like to start a little conservatively. Their pace bowling is slightly thin but they are putting up large totals to give them the cushion.

(Last five matches, most recent first)

Rajasthan Royals LLWWW (8 points from 7 matches)
Chennai Super Kings WWWLW (10 points from 7 matches)

Team news: Stokes and Chahar still unlikely

Before their last match, the CSK coach Stephen Fleming had said Ben Stokes had "another little setback" on his road to recovery. Deepak Chahar is also unlikely to return to action soon.

Toss and Impact Player strategy

The last match in Jaipur was played on a slow and low pitch where scoring was difficult. Assuming a similar pitch is in the offing, Royals might like to include Adam Zampa in their plans, especially considering how they have been using Holder just as a specialist bowler.

Possible XII: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Jos Butter, 3 Sanju Samson (capt. & wk), 4 Devdutt Padikkal, 5 Riyan Parag, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Dhruv Jurel 8 R Ashwin, 9 Trent Boult, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Sandeep Sharma, 12 Adam Zampa/ Jason Holder

CSK have had great success with a fixed combination for the last three matches, but if the pitch is slow there might be temptation to go in with Mitchell Santner in place Matheesha Pathirana. Ambati Rayudu will continue to be the batter to not field.

Possible XII: 1 Devon Conway, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Shivam Dube 6 Ambati Rayudu 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 MS Dhoni (capt. & wk), 9 Matheesha Pathirana/ Mitchell Santner, 10 Tushar Deshpande, 11 Maheesh Theekshana, 12 Akash Singh

Even if the pitch is not as slow as it was in the first match in Jaipur, Sawai Mansingh Stadium has historically not been a high-scoring venue. So don't expect too much fireworks.