Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Chennai Super Kings IPL 2026: Will MS Dhoni makes his first appearance of the season as CSK face SRH in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Updated: April 18, 2026 10:34 AM IST
SRH vs CSK IPL 2026: Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings are two teams which have been dealing with their fair share of injuries from the start of their campaign in IPL 2026 season. While SRH have been waiting for the return of captain Pat Cummins from injury, CSK are sorely missing their former skipper and talismanic player MS Dhoni as the two teams face off in match no. 27 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday.
While Cummins has joined the team in Hyderabad ahead of the clash against CSK, he is unlikely to be available for the match, according to team head coach Daniel Vettori. Dhoni has also travelled with the CSK team to Hyderabad – for the first time this season – after being ruled out of IPL 2026 for the first couple of weeks due to a calf strain.
It is still uncertain if Dhoni will make his first appearance as an ‘Impact Player’ although he was seen in the nets in Hyderabad on Friday. Dhoni spent most of the time on the sidelines and it is more likely that he will play his first match against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium next week.
Kavya Maran’s SRH, on the other hand, have seen Brydon Carse and David Payne ruled out due to injury with Cummins already on the sidelines. On Saturday, SRH announced the signing of South Africa pacer Gerald Coetzee as replacement of David Payne for Rs 2 crore.
“Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have signed Gerald Coetzee as a replacement for David Payne for the remainder of TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. Payne – who played 2 games for SRH in the ongoing IPL season and picked 2 wickets from the same – is ruled out of the remainder of the season due to an ankle injury,” an IPL statement read.
“Coetzee – a right-arm pacer – has played 4 Tests, 14 ODIs and 18 T20Is for South Africa and has 67 international wickets against his name. Coetzee, who replaces Payne at SRH, has played 14 IPL games in the past – representing Gujarat Titans (GT) and Mumbai Indians (MI), and has 15 IPL wickets,” the statement added.
It will be interesting to see if Coetzee will be available for the game against CSK and could come in as replacement of Sri Lanka pacer Eshan Malinga. CSK also have other injury worries with left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed ruled out of the season with a quadriceps injury. Akash Madhwal was seen training with the CSK team in Hyderabad but they are yet to announce a replacement for Khaleel Ahmed.
!⚔️#WhistlePodu #Yellove pic.twitter.com/2zaudiTxNi
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) April 17, 2026
Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Chennai Super Kings IPL 2026 match no 27 Predicted 12
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (c, wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Reddy, Aniket Verma, Salil Arora, Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar, Eshan Malinga, Praful Hinge, Sakib Hussain
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Sanju Samson (wk), Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brewis, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Mukesh Choudhary/Matt Henry, Akeal Hosein/MS Dhoni
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