IPL 2023 Final Berth At Stake, MS Dhoni's CSK To Face Hardik Pandya's GT

The astute tactician in Mahendra Singh Dhoni will dig deep into his reserves to counter Indian cricket's new 'Crown Prince' Shubman Gill as four-time champions Chennai Super Kings will meet their match in current title holders Gujarat Titans in Qualifier-1 of the IPL in Chennai on Tuesday. Gill, who almost single-handedly knocked out a star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore with a century for the keeps, has overshadowed Virat Kohli and will certainly force one of India's greatest captains to go back to drawing board and make plans for him.

Gill is in the midst of a dream season and what will be Dhoni's tactical ploy to stop the dashing 'Mohali Marauder' is there to be seen.

This season, Gujarat Titans haven't played at the Chepauk, which hasn't behaved in a singular manner during CSK's seven home games and that prompted head coach Stephen Fleming to raise apprehensions about what to expect.

What makes this battle even more interesting is the fact that GT is a team that seems closest to being a proto-type of what CSK had been all these years in IPL.

A solid management and an administration team that stays in the background and never interferes in cricketing matters, which is left to the trio of Ashish Nehra, Gary Kirsten and Vikram Solanki.

A captain, who swears that his understanding of leadership is cut from Dhoni's 'captaincy cloth', and head coach Nehra, who just like his former teammate doesn't believe in too many changes even if a couple of games go wrong.

They don't field players based on their auction worth -- remember CSK bought Krishnappa Gowtham for nearly Rs 10 crore and he got a single game as he didn't fit the combination.

Similarly, GT has current India T20 pacer Shivam Mavi on its roster for a whopping