Is Ravichandran Ashwin playing today's KKR vs CSK IPL 2025 match?

Veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin returned to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) playing XI for their IPL 2025 encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Eden Gardens on Wednesday, May 7. He was missing from the side's lineup for their last three fixtures.

Ashwin bowled a tidy spell of 4-0-25-0 against the Mumbai Indians (MI) before being left out. He was omitted from the playing XI for the first time during CSK's away match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

The 38-year-old has now been given another opportunity by the Chennai think tank. Ashwin's homecoming was a big talking point ahead of the season. He was signed by CSK at ₹9.75 crore at the IPL 2025 auction, marking the start of his second stint with the five-time champions.

However, he has performed underwhelmingly so far, bagging just five wickets across seven innings at an economy rate of 9.29. CSK are languishing at the bottom of the points table and were the first team to be eliminated from the playoffs race.

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Ravichandran Ashwin replaced Deepak Hooda in CSK's playing XI

CSK made three changes to their playing XI for the IPL 2025 match against KKR. Urvil Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin and Devon Conway replaced Shaik Rasheed, Deepak Hooda and Sam Curran, respectively.

KKR won the toss and elected to bat first. Speaking at the toss, CSK skipper MS Dhoni said about the changes:

"We want to give chances to a few other players. When you have qualified with three or four games left or when you have been eliminated. We were 50-50 with whether we wanted to bat or bowl. They have two quality spinners. We have a couple of changes.Shaik Rasheed and Sam Curran makes way for Devon Conway and Urvil Patel."

Here are the two lineups:

KKR: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Ramandeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy.

Impact subs: Harshit Rana, Anukul Roy, Luvnith Sisodia, Anrich Nortje, Mayank Markande.

CSK: Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel, Devon Conway, Ravindra Jadeja, Dewald Brevis, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravichandran Ashwin, Anshul Kamboj, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana.

Impact subs: Shivam Dube, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Jamie Overton, Deepak Hooda.