HiveComb

Match 3 of IPL 2026 sees the 2 sides who finished bottom of the pile last time out go head to head.

Both teams were busy in the auction looking to shake up their squads for what they hope will be a far more successful campaign this time around.

In fact, a large amount of the business they conducted at the the back of last year has seen players move from 1 franchise, to the other!

Sanju Samson, the former Royals captain, makes an instant return to Rajasthan, albeit wearing yellow instead of pink (you may need a pair of sunglasses to watch this one).

On the other side, Ravi Jadeja has gone full circle having been a part of that RR side that won the inaugural IPL way back in 2008 before spending a decade playing for CSK.

Will these changes, not to mention the Royals new ownership help deliver greater success in 2026? We wait and see...

Rajasthan certainly have that core of Indian talent to build around that is usually the hallmark of successful sides. Samson may have gone and Buttler with him but they are still left with Jaiswal and the freaky talents of 14-year-old Suryavanshi at the top of the order.

After hitting that century in the IPL last season, Suryavanshi went to play for India U-19s at the 50 over World Cup and demolished the England bowling attack in the final, scoring 175 off 80 balls. It was men (just about) against boy and on this occasion the boy won hands down.

Riyan Parag will almost certainly shift up the order to 3 or 4 and is the Royals' new captain. Dhruv Jurel had a quietly impressive season last year scoring 333 runs in the middle order of a struggling side.

What Rajasthan certainly will want is a bit more from their lower middle order. As the stats above show, Hetmyer didn't feature within the top 5 RR batsmen for balls per boundary but RR opted to retain him anyway.

They did bring back Donovan Ferreira who had a very short stint at the double Rs in 23-24 and played a single match for DC last season. He has a reputation as a ferocious hitter at the death but did miss the SA20 and in his native land due to injury.

Sam Curran and the aforementioned Jadeja bring the kind of allround options that Rajasthan has been lacking for several seasons now not to mention a wealth of experience and leadership to help Parag.

RR also have the talented young Lhuan-dre Pretorius who plays for their sister franchise in South Africa as well as Sri Lanka's T20 captain, Dasun Shanaka to call upon. All in all then, their squad has the makings of a strong top 7 with bowling options to help support their attack.

Jofra Archer will almost certainly lead that attack and hope for a better 2026 season. They do have other options should it not work out in Adam Milne, Nandre Burger and another young South African in Kwena Maphaka who at just 19-years-old is already an established member of the Proteas side and may feel that this is his season in the IPL to do more than just make up the numbers.

Sandeep Sharma and Thushar Deshpande are retained and bring some experience and stability, particularly at the back of innings. While Ravi Bishnoi will almost certainly be the primary spin option for the Royals this year.

You might argue it's a team that's short of a few 'big names' in comparison to other IPL squads but then that's always been the Royals' modus operandi. I'm not sure that they've got enough to win it but I'd expect them to do better than last year!

As for CSK, again you've got that strong core of Indian talent in the top 3 between Gaikwad, Mhatre and now Samson. 1 or 2 of them will need to have substantial seasons if the Super Kings are to return to the later stages of the competition.

Alongside them is Dewald Brevis, a player who feels like he's been around forever despite being just 22 years of age. His form coming into this tournament is very good and he seems far happier now that he's being given chances higher up the order than was often the case in his early career.

Dube will bat 5 and we all know his prowess against slow-bowling. The difficulty for him and CSK is that everyone also knows his weaknesses against the short-ball. CSK need to get some form players around him so that he doesn't have to do all the heavy lifting in that phase against match-ups not in his favour.

That's a very good top 5, what happens next is very un-CSK like!

Where are all the all-rounders? Any CSK side that I can remember always bats to about 9 and has 7 bowling options - even before the impact sub rule came in! It's been a method that has brought great success in the past but is not quite as strong an area this year.

They've spent a big chunk of change on young Prashant Veer who will be charged with adding that balance to the side with his lower-order hitting and left-arm spin. He's essentially CSK's long-term Jadeja replacement.

CSK also paid a large amount for another 19-year-old rising star in Kartik Sharma who as a wicketkeeper batsman is seen as the long-term succesor to MS Dhoni. With Sanju Samson also around, you'd imagine that Sharma will get the opportunity to focus on his batting which is ultra-aggressive.

Still, it's a lot of faith to place on 2 unproven talents at this level who are being charged with turning around the fortunes of one of the most successful and popular IPL franchises in the tournament's history.

As for MS Dhoni, how much longer do they keep going with him? He's 44! He plays no cricket except the IPL and even then his role with the bat is generally relegated to the last 2 or 3 overs of an innings. He did face more balls last season (145) than in previous seasons but managed a S/R of just 135. It feels time to say 'thanks for the memories' but then again, it's felt that way for several years and here we are...

Bowling wise, CSK have a number of options well suited to bowling in the powerplay although many have little to no IPL experience. Matt Henry is a consistent performer in all conditions, in all formats. He may get to play a role in the CSK side despite only taking 2 wickets in 6 previous IPL appearances.

Spencer Johnson has shown how devastating he can be on occasion while Khaleel Ahmed is a handful in helpful conditions. Anshul Kamboj did well when brought into the side in the 2nd half of the 2025 season. However, are any of these bowlers of sufficient calibre to lead an IPL attack? I'm not sure.

Noor Ahmed will do the bulk of his work and do it very effectively during the middle overs but he'll be most impactful when opposition sides are already under-pressure.

The real weakness for CSK looks to be their death bowling. Nathan Ellis would have been pencilled in to bowl a lot of the tough overs for this CSK attack so his absence could prove significant.

The first thing to note about the Baspara Stadium in Guwahati is that it hasn't been a regular venue for IPL cricket. The Royals played 2 games here last year, 1 the year before that and another 2 in 2023, as such, you do have to take these stats with a pinch of salt, simply because we don't have much recent data to go on.

That being said, it's generally been a slow surface as the stats above demonstrate so I wouldn't anticipate that you'll see any monster scoring here.

Looking at the Rajasthan line-up also gives you a clue as to the kind of conditions they are likely to produce in order to benefit their team. Bishnoi and Jadeja + Riyan Parag could mean 10 overs of spin and even their 'quicks' in Curran, Sandeep and Deshpande are more suited to bowling change ups and cutters into a slow surface than blasting sides out with sheer pace.

That plus the fact that these were the worst 2 sides last season means I doubt we'll see a run fest for those taking part in IPL Boundary Blackjack.

In that regard welcome to @blockchainfpl and @wildlifelover who take the total players in round 1 to 21 and counting.

All statistics and graphs in this article are drawn from my own database. Feel free to share them but please attribute the source back to this blog