Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have started their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 campaign against Rajasthan Royals without MS Dhoni or Suresh Raina being in the playing XI. This is the first instance since the inception of the league that the Men in Yellow took the field without either of their two legendary players. Ruturaj Gaikwad is leading the five-time champions, with Sanju Samson donning the wicket-keeper’s gloves.

Raina retired from all forms of cricket in 2022, while Dhoni has been ruled out for the first two weeks of the IPL 2026 of the cash-rich league due to calf strain.

Chennai have contested 277 matches in franchise cricket, with 253 in the IPL and 24 in the defunct Champions League T20. Throughout the 277 games, Dhoni or Raina was associated with Chennai’s Playing XI. While Raina’s last game in 2021 was before he bid adieu to cricket, Dhoni continued to play in the cash-rich league. He has become a lower-order batter in the last few seasons, with the batter focusing on fours and sixes in the death overs.

Dhoni has scored 5,439 runs in 278 matches at an average of 38.30 and a strike rate of 137.45, including 24 half-centuries.

Raina is the fifth-highest run-scorer in the history of the IPL, with 5,528 runs in 205 matches at an average of 32.51 and a strike rate of 136.73, laced with a hundred and 39 half-centuries.

Chennai Super Kings Squad

Sanju Samson (w), Ayush Mhatre, Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Urvil Patel, Matthew Short, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Matt Henry, Anshul Kamboj, Akeal Hosein, Sarfaraz Khan, MS Dhoni, Dewald Brevis, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Chahar, Spencer Johnson, Mukesh Choudhary, Aman Khan, Gurjapneet Singh, Zakary Foulkes, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer.

Rajasthan Royals Squad

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Riyan Parag (c), Dhruv Jurel (w), Shimron Hetmyer, Dasun Shanaka, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Adam Milne, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Tushar Deshpande, Shubham Dubey, Nandre Burger, Kuldeep Sen, Sushant Mishra, Donovan Ferreira, Kwena Maphaka, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Vignesh. Puthur, Ravi Singh, Aman Rao Perala, Brijesh Sharma