The experienced opening combo of Sanju Samson and Ruturaj Gaikwad will be under intense pressure to produce as the Chennai Super Kings look for their first win of the season against the Delhi Capitals in IPL 2026 on Saturday in Chennai. CSK has started the season poorly, losing three games in three separate venues. If they are to compete with opposing teams, they must significantly enhance their batting and bowling skills. The loss of Dewald Brevis has had an impact on the side's balance. The powerful South African batsman is likely to return from injury against the Delhi Capitals. However, there is no word on the return of M S Dhoni, who has yet to play this season owing to a calf ailment.

Samson and Gaikwad's starting combo must perform well before CSK's chances are lost.
Kartik Sharma, too, has to improve in the middle, while Prashant Veer has performed admirably in the lower order. Sarfaraz Khan, the only consistent batter this season, has something to prove.
The CSK bowlers conceded 250 runs against RCB, which was too much for the hitters. Except for Khaleel Ahmed, all of the bowlers allowed at least 12 runs per over.
This will be the second game of the season at Chepauk. PBKS easily pursued 210 against the hosts on April 3.

CSK take on the Delhi Capitals, who are coming off a one-run loss to the Gujarat Titans in Delhi. The Axar Patel-led team understands the value of momentum in a highly competitive event like the IPL, and they are aiming to exacerbate CSK's difficulties with an all-round performance.
David Miller's refusal to take a single on the penultimate ball to tie the game against the Titans would be a talking topic for the rest of the season, but it would almost certainly not be discussed in the locker room.
It could, however, play on the psyche of the South African who believed he could finish the game for his team but fell short.Pacer Mukesh Kumar leaked 55 runs in four overs on Wednesday, prompting him to reconsider his powerplay strategy.
In Mitchell Starc's absence, Lungi Ngidi has done his part for the team by extending his frugal ways since the T20 World Cup.
KL Rahul scored some welcome runs with the bat after a number of failures, leaving only Nitish Rana in the top order to make an impression.

Squads:
CSK: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Dewald Brevis, MS Dhoni, Urvil Patel, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ayush Mhatre, Khaleel Ahmed, Nathan Ellis, Gurjapneet Singh, Noor Ahmad, Akeal Hosein, Prashant Veer, Sarfaraz Khan, Matt Henry, Rahul Chahar, Zakary Foulkes, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Mukesh Choudhary, Matthew Short, Aman Khan, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Shreyas Gopal, Anshul Kamboj
Delhi Capitals: Abhishek Porel, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Ashutosh Sharma, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Tripurana Vijay, David Miller, Ben Duckett, Auqib Nabi Dar, Pathum Nissanka, Lungi Ngidi, Prithvi Shaw, Kyle Jamieson, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Madhav Tiwari, T Natarajan, Sahil Parakh.