India’s current and former skippers will go head-to-head in the IPL on Wednesday when Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore takes on MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings at the Chinnaswamy stadium.

Both sides come into the clash on the backs of impressive wins although it is the Super Kings who are the in-form team with four wins out five matches so far.

On the other hand, Kohli’s men lost three of their first four matches in the competition before getting their campaign back on track with a six-wicket win over Delhi Daredevils.

TALKING POINTS

AGEING SUPER KINGS STILL A FORCE

At 25 years of age, pacer Deepak Chahar was the youngest player in the Chennai playing XI which beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets on Sunday. That Chennai Super Kings have an ageing squad compared to the rest of the pack is well known and even skipper Dhoni has poked fun at the topic.

However, there is no denying that the two-time champions have plenty of IPL experience in their side and the veterans in the team have all stood up to be counted at crucial times in their campaign so far. The likes of Dhoni, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu and Suresh Raina have all made vital contributions while the ‘younger’ guns in Chahar and Sam Billings have also chipped in when called upon.

Whether they have the legs to go all the way to the title remains to be seen, but for now, they seem to be a force to be reckoned with.

BATTING DEFINING RCB ONCE AGAIN

With Kohli, AB de Villiers and Quinton de Kock in the ranks, Bangalore’s batting was always going to be their forte.  However, the bowling unit is looking patchy at the moment save for a few stellar individual performances.

This has placed all the more onus on the batsmen in the side and it is the batting which has primarily decided the side’s fortunes in the season so far. While Kohli has been largely consistent, the supporting cast has largely been patchy. De Villiers came to the party with an unbeaten 90 (39) in the win against the Daredevils and the Royal Challengers will need their star batsmen to click together once again if they are to have a chance against a high-flying Super Kings.

SOUTHERN DERBY 

There is no shortage of excitement whenever the two sides meet in the IPL. Having been loosely classified as the South India derby, the match is set to take place in the backdrop of the ongoing Cauvery river dispute between the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Political protests over the affair was the cause of the Super Kings’ home matches being shifted out of Chennai to Pune after just one match. While no such protests are expected on Wednesday in Bengaluru, expect the Chinnaswamy stadium to be jam-packed and rocking when the Super Kings come calling.

LIKELY LINE-UPS

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Quinton de Kock (wk), Manan Vohra, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers, Corey Anderson, Mandeep Singh, Washington Sundar, Chris Woakes, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Chennai Super Kings: Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (c, wk), Ambati Rayudu, Sam Billings, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur