It is going to be the first ever IPL El-Clasico without Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. The Chennai Super Kings visited Wankhede Stadium to clash against the Mumbai Indians in the greatest IPL rivalry on Thursday, April 23. The game saw home skipper Hardik Pandya win the toss and invite the rivals to put the score on the board first. There were reports that Rohit Sharma could return to action for the Indians during the game and former CSK skipper MS Dhoni could make his season debut.

However, both players have been ruled out for the game and hence, this is going to be the first ever CSK-MI game without either of them. Notably, Sharma is out with a hamstring injury he suffered during the game against the RCB. On the other hand, Dhoni is yet to make his season debut due to a calf injury. There were positive reports for both the players and visuals of them training in the nets surfaced, giving fans hopes to see the former Indian cricket teammates back together.

However, per reports by Cricbuzz, “Both MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma trained on Tuesday night, on the eve of the game, but it is understood that neither looked fully convinced about their fitness.” It was later confirmed during the toss time when both skippers, Hardik Pandya and Ruturaj Gaikwad maintained their silence on Sharma and Dhoni, respectively.

How do the playing XI for CSK and MI look like?

Here are the playing XI for both CSK and MI for their clash on Thursday-

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya(c), Tilak Varma, Sherfane Rutherford, Mitchell Santner, Jasprit Bumrah, Krish Bhagat, AM Ghazanfar, Ashwani Kumar  

Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Sanju Samson(w), Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Sarfaraz Khan, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Mukesh Choudhary

Notably, Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to field first.