Chennai Super Kings legend MS Dhoni missed out on another match in the Indian Premier League 2026 as his team takes on Kolkata Knight Riders at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday, April 14. Dhoni has been out of action ever since the start of the tournament as he is nursing a calf injury, which he picked up during the build-up to the tournament.
In a social media statement at the start of the IPL 2026, CSK had confirmed that Dhoniย will “likely to miss the first two weeks”. He misses out on CSK’s fifth game of the season and third at home. For the unversed,ย Dhoni has been training with the CSK team on match eves but is not fit to play as of now. He has not been travelling with the CSK squad to their away venues and has come to the Chepauk on match days.
No update on when Dhoni will play
There has been nothing on when Dhoni will take the field. CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad has been asked multiple times about Dhoni’s return this season. All that he could give was that the former skipper will be back ‘very soon’. Speaking during CSK’s previous game against DC on April 11, Gaikwad said at the toss, “For those asking about MS Dhoni, heโs at the hotel watching and supporting us. But yes, very soon, youโll see him out on the ground.”
KKR opt to bowl first against CSK
Coming to the CSK vs KKR game, Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and opted to bowl first. KKR made one change to their Playing XI as Varun Chakravarthy came in for Navdeep Saini. Meanwhile, CSK have no change to the team that defeated DC at home. Unlike in the past few matches, CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad was not asked about Dhoni and he did not give anything on the talisman of when he will be back.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Ajinkya Rahane(c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi(w), Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Sanju Samson(w), Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Ayush Mhatre, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Dewald Brevis, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Khaleel Ahmed
Kolkata Knight Riders Impact Subs: Finn Allen, Manish Pandey, Tejasvi Dahiya, Tim Seifert, Navdeep Saini
Chennai Super Kings Impact Subs: Matthew Short, Akeal Hosein, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer, Matt Henry