MS Dhoni suggested the name, and Zaheer Khan has one year to make CSK a playoff team again
Chennai Super Kings named Zaheer Khan head coach on Monday on a one-year deal covering IPL 2027. The recommendation came from MS Dhoni, who remains on the franchise’s list as a player.
Sep 22, 2026
Chennai Super Kings have ended a coaching search that had run since Stephen Fleming walked away in July. Zaheer Khan is their new head coach, announced on Monday on a one-year deal covering IPL 2027, and the name came from inside the dressing room rather than off a shortlist.
Dhoni put the name forward
CSK’s Kasi Viswanathan has been open about how the decision was made. “We take all our decisions discussing with MS Dhoni, and once he suggested his name, the management spoke to Zaheer and convinced him,” he told Sportstar. The franchise also wanted the views of captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sanju Samson before it moved, and the owners were in those conversations too.
That Dhoni link runs deep. Zaheer took 21 wickets at the 2011 World Cup, joint most in the tournament alongside Shahid Afridi, in a side Dhoni captained to the title. Fifteen years on, one of them is recommending the coach and the other is taking the job.
Following the only CSK coach most fans remember
Fleming took charge in 2009 and won five titles, in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023. He is now England’s Test head coach on a four-year deal, and his first assignment is the series in South Africa that starts on 17 December. Replacing him was always going to be awkward, because over that stretch the CSK method and Fleming’s method became the same thing.
Zaheer inherits a team that has stopped reaching the knockouts. CSK finished eighth in 2026 with six wins from 14 and 12 points, the third side eliminated. In 2025 they were tenth and last with four wins, out before anybody else. Add 2024, when they missed the top four on net run rate, and that is three seasons in a row without a playoff game.
The squad itself is not the problem. Samson, traded in from Rajasthan Royals, was CSK’s leading scorer in his first season at the club with 477 runs in 13 innings at 47.70, striking at 166.20. Anshul Kamboj took 21 wickets, more than any other CSK bowler, and spent part of the season in the Purple Cap conversation. A side with those two in form finished eighth anyway.
His first head coach job
Zaheer has been around franchise cricket for eight years without ever running a team. He was at Mumbai Indians from 2018 to 2022, first as director of cricket operations and later as global head of development once the owners started buying teams in other leagues. He was India’s bowling consultant in 2017. Most recently he was mentor at Lucknow Super Giants for the 2025 season and left that role in September 2025.
So this is the first time he picks the XI and stands in front of the group as the man in charge. A one-year contract reads like both sides leaving themselves room.
Dhoni is still on the playing list
There had been talk of Dhoni himself moving into a coaching or mentoring role for the tournament’s 20th season. Viswanathan shut that down. “He is available as a player,” he said.
Available is doing some work in that sentence. Dhoni was retained and named in the CSK squad for 2026 but did not take the field in a single match, which ended a run of playing in every IPL season since 2008. He turned 45 in July. Whether he plays in 2027 is a separate question from whether he is on the list.
It leaves Zaheer somewhere unusual for a first-time head coach. The most influential figure at the club will be in his dressing room, possibly in pads, having recommended him for the job. That can work beautifully or it can get complicated, and CSK have given him twelve months to find out which.