The new season of Indian Premier League Cricket (IPL), Chennai Super Kings, has a new look. But the batting woes were the same. As a result, Chennai suffered an 8-wicket defeat to Rajasthan Royals in their first match of IPL 2026 on Monday.

The team had already lost 4 wickets after scoring 41 runs in the power play, due to which Chennai, which was at the bottom last season as well, was bowled out for 127 runs in 19.4 overs after batting first. The Guwahati pitch was not that easy for batting. Rajasthan's tight bowling made Chennai even weaker.

Sanju Samson, who came to Chennai this season after playing for Rajasthan for a long time, was out for 6 runs. Samson, who was selected as the Player of the Series when India won the Twenty20 World Cup last month, was bowled by Nandre Burger. Samson's opening pair captain Rituraj Gaikwad was also bowled by Jofra Archer for 6 runs.

Burger did not allow Ayush Mahatre to open his account. Chennai was in serious trouble after Matthew Short was also dismissed for 2 runs. Then Chennai was forced to take an 'impact player'. Sarfaraz Khan, who came into that role, scored 17 runs in 12 balls, hitting 2 fours and 1 six.

Karthik Sharma scored 18 runs in 15 balls, hitting 1 six. Shivam Dube was dismissed for 6 runs. Jamie Overton top-scored with 43 runs. Overton, the last player to be dismissed in Chennai's innings, hit 2 fours and a six in 36 balls.

Noor Ahmed was dismissed for 1, Matt Henry for 5 runs. Anshul Kamboj remained unbeaten on 7 runs. Archer, Burger and Ravindra Jadeja took 2 wickets each for Rajasthan. Archer conceded 19 runs in 4 overs, Burger conceded 26 runs in 4 overs.

Jadeja was a key member of Rajasthan's first season of IPL in 2008. Jadeja, who had been playing for Chennai since then, has come to Rajasthan this season. He dismissed Sarfaraz and Dubey conceding 18 runs in 3 overs. Brijesh Sharma, Sandeep Sharma and Ravi Bishnoi took 1 wicket each.