IPL 2025: KKR Decide To Bowl Against CSK, Bring Back Moeen Ali To Strengthen Spin Attack In Crunch Encounter

IPL 2025: Ajinkya Rahane-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won the toss and decided to bowl against MS Dhoni 's Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 25th match of the Indian Premier League ( IPL ) 2025 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, on Friday, April 11th. 

The Knight Riders made one change to their playing eleven as they brought Moeen Ali back in the squad in place of Spencer Johnson. Meanwhile, CSK made two changes: Rahul Tripathi and Anshul Kambhoj were called back into the playing eleven in place of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Mukesh Choudhary.

ALSO READ: MS Dhoni Rewrites Record Books Again, Adds Another Rare Milestone On His Captaincy Return

While speaking at the toss, KKR captain Rahane opened up on the pitch at the Chepauk and said that it's a good wicket and won't be changing much. 

"There were a lot of positives from the last game. We as a team played really well. It is about improving each game. (On the pitch) This looks like a good wicket, won't change much. We are batting deep, so that's why we look to bowl first and chase things down," Rahane said, as quoted by Cricbuzz.

Captain MS Dhoni Sets Tone For CSK For Rest Of IPL 2025

CSK captain MS Dhoni set the tone for his side for the rest of the season and said that every game is crucial for them from now onwards.

"We were looking to bat first. Quite a few occasions where we tried to chase it down and what we realised is that the wicket slows down a bit, so if you don't get a good start then the middle order comes under pressure... It is important now, every game is important. We have lost too many matches and now it is important to do the basics right - have dot balls, take our catches. A couple of games we lost by big margins, but otherwise it was about the small things - about one over going for 20 runs...," Dhoni said.

ALSO READ: MS Dhoni To Take Over As CSK Skipper As Ruturaj Gaikwad Suffers Season-Ending Injury, Reveals Coach Stephen Fleming

Both KKR And CSK Have Displayed Poor Performance In IPL 2025 So Far

KKR stand in the sixth place on the IPL 2025 standings with four points and have a net run rate of -0.056. On the other hand, CSK hold the ninth place with two points and have a net run rate of -0.889.

Kolkata Knight Riders - Playing XI: Quinton de Kock (Wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (C), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy.

Chennai Super Kings - Playing XI: Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Rahul Tripathi, Vijay Shankar, Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni (Wk/C), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin , Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed.