The 37th match of the Indian Premier League 2026 will feature a clash between the Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. The halfway point of the tournament sees both teams aiming for a win to get their team ahead of the league table, and carry their team for the remainder of the season. Chennai Super Kings come into this game on the back of a strong performance against Mumbai Indians. They are currently in mixed form this season, having 3 wins and 4 losses from their 7 games. Despite their initial struggles, CSK have come a long way this season and are batting well in the matches they have won, scoring 180+ in almost every game this season. There have been issues with form of skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad and also several injuries to the squad. This has put immense pressure on the bowling line up which has managed to cope in most of their games this season. Back-to-back games at home gives them a huge advantage, and they will be looking to make the most of these games to turn their inconsistent season around. Gill-led Gujarat Titans have been in a similar situation in this tournament. Having won 3 and lost four, they have experienced similar phases of the game. After a very sluggish start, they managed to win 3 games on the trot before suffering 2 defeats. Their batting is still over-dependent on their top 3 in the form of Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler, who have continued their dominance so far. While Sai Sudharsan has registered a century so far, the batting order does not support the top 3 enough, especially in the death overs. The bowling unit will also be in huge question after failing to contain the opposition on multiple occasions. This match will be a crucial one for both the sides as both GT and CSK languish in the bottom-half of the table. A win in this game will solidify their chances for the playoff qualification where a defeat will push them back in the hunt of top 4. At the toss, Gujarat have won and chose to bowl first. Here's what the captains said at the toss: Ruturaj Gaikwad: "It's a bit on the drier side and more often than not, it will remain the same, so we're batting first really well and wouldn't mind putting on the score again and defend it. The confidence is high looking at the margin of the runs that we won the last game. But again, this game starts fresh, starts from zero. We have to start assessing how the pitch is, bat accordingly, and then try and defend it. But obviously, confidence-wise, we are slightly getting better and better in terms of overall unit. It's just that one or two areas where we need to click, we need to fire, and we'll get better on from that. (On his own form) I've been getting starts and not able to convert it. It's very rare, to be honest, but it doesn't quite happen that often. But as I said, as long as I'm getting starts and as long as someone else is doing the job and we are getting over the line, it's fine. But whenever I feel, I'm there, I'm set, and I feel that today's my day, and I'll have to make sure I'll make it count, and I'm confident with that. We just got one change, Urvil comes in, and we'll play around with the impact player." Shubman Gill: "We're gonna bowl first. It looks like a good wicket. On a wicket like this, it's good to have a total on the board. (On the afternoon heat) Actually, not that bad. A good bit of breeze going on, so hopefully it wouldn't be too tough on our bowlers. We're doing a lot of the things right. It's just about winning the small moments and I think in bowling when we're leaking runs, we are leaking too many runs in that period of three to four overs. So it's just about hitting that length ball consistently in the middle overs. And that's what the talk has been about. (More aggressive in the powerplay?) Honestly, if the wicket is nice,that is our talk. If the wicket is well, get 70-80 in the powerplay, get as many actually in the powerplay but it's very important to assess the conditions and if the wicket is a 170-180 wicket, really you got to assess that as well because I think at the end of the day, it's important to play the conditions rather than something that has not happened. One change, Arshad is coming back in the squad." Also Read | Not Injury! Real Reason Behind MS Dhoni’s CSK Absence in IPL 2026 Revealed CSK vs GT Playing XI 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 CSK Impact subs: Sarfaraz Khan, Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Veer, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Matthew Short 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 GT Impact subs: Rahul Tewatia, Anuj Rawat, Glenn Phillips, Kulwant Khejroliya, Nishant Sindhu