Narayan Jagadeesan’s likely XI leans almost entirely on the same eleven that took the field two days earlier against Nellai. Chepauk head into Friday’s clash at Dindigul chasing a first final in four years, and the template used against NRK looks set to carry over largely unchanged against a Tiruppur side defending its 2025 crown. No official team sheet exists yet, so everything below is built from the most recent selection pattern and the squad list confirmed after the auction.

Inside Match 5 At Dindigul

Three years without reaching a final is a long wait for a franchise with Chepauk’s resources, and Friday offers a chance to start reversing that. Qualifier defeats and an eliminator exit have defined the last three campaigns, most recently a loss to Tiruppur itself in last year’s first qualifier.

Friday’s toss comes at 3:30 in the afternoon, meaning heat will dry the surface faster than a typical evening start, which historically pushes more turn into the middle overs. That single variable could shape team selection more than form does.

Chepauk Super Gillies vs Tamizhans TNPL 2026 XI

Jagadeesan keeps the gloves and the captaincy, opening alongside K Aashiq at the top. RS Mokit Hariharan and Ram Arvindh occupy the middle order, with S Dinesh Raj and Harish Aadithya offering batting depth before the bowling all-rounders take over from number seven.

Names like Baba Aparajith and Vijay Shankar surfaced in an earlier prediction but are absent from this XI, and Vijay Shankar’s actual franchise for this season still isn’t settled across every source tracking the auction list.

The Bowling Combination CSG Could Field

Murugan Ashwin carries the spin workload as the senior off-break option, backed by a domestic résumé that stretches through IPL cricket. Abhishek Tanwar offers the sharpest recent form of anyone in this attack, having taken four wickets in a single innings against Kovai during the 2024 edition.

J Prem Kumar adds experienced pace, having picked up two wickets in Chepauk’s eliminator defeat two years ago, while M Silambarasan and Sujay Sivasankaran round out an attack built for a slow, spin-friendly surface rather than raw hostility.

Tiruppur’s Title-Winning Combination Returns Largely Unchanged

Tiruppur has little incentive to tinker with the group that won them a maiden title just over a year ago, and early signs point to almost the exact same XI walking out again.

Raheja finished last year’s final with 77, and Sathvik chipped in 65, the pair sharing the wicketkeeping duties that made them the two most destructive top-order batters in that campaign. Sai Kishore backs that batting with sixteen wickets as the tournament’s leading bowler, giving Tiruppur a genuine all-format threat at three.

Reading The Dindigul Pitch For M5

The only data point so far at this venue this season came from Match 1, where Tiruppur themselves were bowled out for just 107 against Dindigul Dragons, well below the historical first-innings average of 158 across seventy TNPL matches at similar grounds.

Chasing has worked 60 percent of the time historically, and an afternoon start with no dew factor should keep spinners relevant as the pitch dries out through the middle overs. None of that guarantees a repeat of Match 1’s collapse, but it does suggest teams batting first should target a total closer to 160 than 185.

Whichever combination Jagadeesan settles on, the core of the Chepauk Super Gillies vs Tamizhans TNPL 2026 XI picture is largely set, and Friday becomes less about surprises and more about execution from personnel that has already been named.

Would this Chepauk side finally break its three-year final drought, or does Tiruppur’s title-winning core prove too settled to topple? Share your prediction before the toss.