The IPL 2023 schedule is out now and the 16th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is just less than 40 days away. Indian Premier League will kick on March 31st at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad and last season’s champions Gujarat Titans and 4 times champions Chennai Super Kings will start the proceedings in the IPL 2023.
Gujarat Titans Last year’s IPL winners
It is the first time that the Gujarat Titans (GT) have won the IPL title and that too in their first outings in the tournament. Before that also, another Gujarat-based franchise, Gujarat Lions (GL) played in the tournament during IPL 2016 and 2017 when both Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) were banned for two years.
The last IPL season’s champion Gujarat Titans beat the first IPL season’s champion Rajasthan
Chennai Super Kings’ Last IPL title
Chennai Super Kings is one of the most successful franchises in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL). They have won the title four times just behind Mumbai Indians (MI) who have five titles in the IPL history i.e. 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020.
Chennai Super Kings won the championship in 2010, 2011, 2018, and 2021. The most recent one was IPL 2021 when they defeated Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 27 runs in the championship game.
CSK had a very bad Last IPL season
Chennai Super Kings had a very bad IPL 2022 as they finished second last in the points table with only 4 wins in 14 games. Their net run rate (NRR) is -0.203, just better than Mumbai Indians who also had 4 wins. MI finished last in the points table.
IPL 2023 opening game
Now, both the teams will look to start well in the IPL 2023 at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on March 31st.
Chennai Super Kings squad for IPL 2023:-
MS Dhoni (c), Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Chowdhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Deepak Chahar, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Ben Stokes, B Varma, A Mandal, N Sidhu, Shaik Rasheed, A Rahane
Gujarat Titans squad for the IPL 2023:-
Hardik Pandya (c), Shubman Gill, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudharsan, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Rashid Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav, R Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmad, Kane Williamson, Odean Smith, KS Bharat, Shivam Mavi, Urvil Patel, Joshua Little, Mohit Sharma
Strengths of both teams:-
Chennai Super Kings
CSK has a very strong squad with two openers Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad both have done well last year. And they have been in top form in domestic and international cricket circuits. Also, two of the best all-rounders of the world, Ravindra Jadeja and Ben Stokes will play together this time in the IPL 2023.
Gujarat Titans
They are the champions of the last season and will look to replicate the same thing in the IPL 2023. Gujarat has a strong batting line up just like in the IPL 2022. And now, Shubman Gill is also coming with a lot of confidence and a lot of runs under his belt in international cricket.
Other than that, they have some power hitters in the middle order which consists of Hardik Pandya, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, and Rashid Khan. A young local boy Abhinav Manohar has also done well in the IPL 2022. GT’s bowling is one of the best with some international and Indian star in the mix. Some fringe Indian bowlers like Yash Dayal and Shivam Mavi will boost the squad as well.
Venues for the semi-finals and final of the tournament
The last league stage match will be played by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Gujarat Titans (GT) at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on May 21st.
Venues and dates of the semi-finals and the finals are yet to be decided. This time around, the IPL 2023 will see 12 different venues across the season. Those venues are Ahmedabad, Mohali, Jaipur, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Dharamsala.
We all are excited for the IPL 2023 to start. Let’s see who draws the first blood in the opening encounter of the season. Whether it is the last year’s IPL champion Gujarat Titans or four times IPL champions Chennai Super Kings. What do you think about this one? Who will win the opening game? Comment your answer below.
Hardik Pandya will lead the Gujarat Titans while MS Dhoni will be the captain of the Chennai Super Kings.
Thank you for reading the article. We hope you like it. Keep following us for the latest sports-related updates.
