Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
As the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 progresses, in the eighth match, five-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will host Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. While both teams are coming off a similar result in their respective previous matches, as the Benglauru-based franchise handed a seven-wicket defeat to defending champion, Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens, CSK registered a convincing four-wicket win over arch-rivals Mumbai Indians (MI) to kickstart their campaign on a high.
As the two teams will step on the field in their second match of the season, both will be vying to go ahead to get the two points on a spin friendly track at Chepauk. Ahead of the big match, RCB mentor Dinesh Karthik dropped a big hint on the team going forward with an extra spinner.
RCB eyeing to play Mohit Rathee vs CSK in IPL 2025
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Dinesh Karthik confirmed that there aren’t any fitness issues in the camp, while hinting that they could go with an extra spinner in Mohit Rathee. “Mohit Rathee is a very interesting one. Haven’t yet decided on any combination as such but he is amongst the talks on whether playing an extra spinner will be helpful for us,” DK said.
The former India and RCB wicketkeeper-batter also added, “One of our strengths is the way we play spin. And as the tournament unfolds you see it happen. CSK have three very good spinners but we also have very competent batters who we trust. One of the reasons why we picked them is how well we play spin.”
The Rajat Patidar-led franchise, who will return to action on Friday, March 28, are currently sitting at the top of the points table with two points in their kitty and a Net Run Rate of +2.137.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL 2025 squad
Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Yash Dayal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Liam Livingstone, Josh Hazlewood, Rasikh Dar, Suyash Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Nuwan Thushara, Jacob Bethell, Manoj Bhandage, Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chhikara, Lungi Ngidi, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee.
