According to reporting from The Indian Express’ Venkata Krishna B, Dhoni playing today appears unlikely. Why? As Venkata reports, Dhoni is fit and is only delaying his comeback because he doesn’t want to disturb a combination that now appears settled.

The former CSK captain successfully completed a fitness test after finishing his rehab, and even joined the squad for their away trips to Hyderabad and Mumbai this week. But Dhoni didn’t start matches with the official word from the CSK camp being that he is still on the road to recovery.

Even without Dhoni, CSK find themselves in fifth spot in the standings with three wins from seven games. Gujarat Titans meanwhile are two spots below CSK despite having the same number of wins and points from the same amount of games.

Teams:

Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Jos Buttler(w), Shahrukh Khan, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Arshad Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Manav Suthar

Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Sanju Samson(w), Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Urvil Patel, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Akeal Hosein, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh

Scroll down for all the updates from the Chennai Super Kings vs Gujarat Titans IPL 2026 game

Akeal Hosein reacts to CSK’s thumping 103-run win over MI: ‘Cricket is played on the day, not on paper’

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) produced arguably their most complete performance of IPL 2026, trouncing the Mumbai Indians (MI) by 103 runs at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday. Barring a 73-run stand for the third wicket between Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma, it was a batting meltdown for the hosts, who capitulated from 84/3 to 104 all out, handing the visitors a thumping win.

One of the stars for CSK was Akeal Hosein, whose spell of 4/17 in four overs broke the back of the hosts’ batting line-up. Speaking about MI’s capitulation in the second innings, he said that while teams can perhaps look evenly-matched on paper, it is who executes the plan on that day that decides the match result.

“I mean, at the end of the day, cricket is played on the day, not on paper. And when you go out as a bowling unit, and you execute as well as you did today, there’s nothing to be surprised about when you see the opposition make such a score. It’s just about, you know, singing praises to the bowling unit. And like I say, once you go out and you hit your straps and you execute, anything is possible,” Hosein said in the post-match press conference.