Chris Gayle boost for Kings XI against depleted Super Kings

The IPL is a strange place, where friends turn foes and foes turn friends. Chennai Super Kings' Thala MS Dhoni v Chennai boy R Ashwin will headline this contest. There's also Shane Watson v Chris Gayle to look forward to. Chennai boys M Ashwin and Varun Chakravarthy, who had bowled at the Super Kings nets and then bagged bumper contracts with other franchises, also return to Chepauk as part of the opposition.

Kings XI are on a high after pulling off a coup at the death against Delhi Capitals on Monday. On the other hand, Super Kings faltered against Mumbai Indians, suffering their first defeat of the season after a Hardik Pandya-Kieron Pollard bash. To add to their woes, Dwayne Bravo has been ruled out for two weeks because of a hamstring strain. Kings XI, meanwhile, will be bolstered by the return of Gayle, who had missed the game against Capitals with a niggle.

With or without Bravo, there are concerns over Super Kings' fast bowling, particularly at the death. In the past two years in the IPL, Super Kings have the worst economy rate (11.20) between overs 16 and 20. When Bravo was misfiring last season, Super Kings fell back on Lungi Ngidi, but he couldn't even turn up in India because of an injury.

Kings XI have more options in the death with the ball. In addition to Andrew Tye and Sam Curran, spinners Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Ashwin can also tackle pressure in the slog overs. But who is their finisher with the bat? Ashwin had conceded that Kings XI were at least 25 runs short in Mohali. Mandeep Singh and Hardus Viljoen have promised much, but they haven't gotten enough big hits away.

Gayle trained at Chepauk on the eve of the game, and Mayank Agarwal confirmed that the West Indies opener was fit.

New Zealand allrounder Scott Kuggeleijn, meanwhile, is in line to make his IPL debut on Saturday after having a fairly long stint at training on Thursday after arriving in Chennai.

Kings XI's mystery spinner Varun only did some light stretching, and did not bowl in the nets. He is unlikely to feature on Saturday.

It was the last game of the group stage of IPL 2018 when the two teams last faced off, in Pune. Kings XI only put up 153, bowled out with two balls left as Ngidi struck four times. Super Kings then rode on Suresh Raina's unbeaten 61 and the promoted Deepak Chahar's 39 to get past the target in 19.1 overs.

Chennai Super Kings (probable) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Ambati Rayudu, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Kedar Jadhav, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Scott Kuggeleijn, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Harbhajan Singh 10 Mohit Sharma/Shardul Thakur, 11 Imran Tahir

Kings XI Punjab (probable) 1 KL Rahul (wk), 2 Chris Gayle, 3 Mayank Agarwal, 4 Sarfaraz Khan, 5 David Miller, 6 Mandeep Singh, 7 Sam Curran, 8 R Ashwin (capt), 9 M Ashwin, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Mujeeb Ur Rahman/Hardus Viljoen