For CSK, will new philosophy lead to old success?

Sanju Samson's entry and the change in planning that made CSK splurge on Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma make them different this time

Alagappan Muthu

Published: Mar 23, 2026, 11:27 AM (4 hrs ago)

50:00

'When you enter into the CSK environment, you're really a part of a family'

Where Chennai Super Kings finished last year

In last place, going through a five-match losing streak and then a four-match losing streak to finally have just four wins from 14 games.

What's new in IPL 2026

It's new but it's also something CSK have seen before. A T20 World-Cup-winning wicketkeeper-batter coming in. The MS Dhoni buy in 2008 set this franchise up for much of its success on and off the field and they will be hoping for a similar effect with Sanju Samson's arrival in 2026.

Related

When Chennai saw Dhoni and Samson and Dhoni in Samson

Always super, all the time: the CSK way

The who's who of injured and unavailable players for IPL 2026

The old CSK had someone like Mitchell Santner on their books and barely gave him game time. This one looks set to throw a 20-year-old who has played nine T20s and a 19-year-old who has played 12 T20s straight into their XI. Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma were bought for INR 14.2 crore each signalling a huge shift from the way this team used to do things.

Part of this shift began in the middle of the last season when CSK brought in Ayush Mhatre - a World Cup winner now after leading India to the Under-19 title - as opener and Dewald Brevis as the No. 4 or 5 batter, both key positions in terms of innings building and acceleration. Their success, along with the rest of the teams trusting young talent to come good, has resulted in a strategic shift. Only time will tell if it will also bring trophies.

12:49

Du Plessis: CSK's top five makes you go 'wow'

Likely best XII

1. Sanju Samson, 2 Ayush Mhatre, 3 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 4 Shivam Dube, 5 Dewald Brevis*, 6 Kartik Sharma/Sarfaraz Khan, 7 Prashant Veer, 8 MS Dhoni (wk), 9 Jamie Overton*/Ramakrishna Ghosh, 10 Noor Ahmad*, 11 Matt Henry/Akeal Hosein*, 12 Khaleel Ahmed

*denotes overseas pick

Big question

Watch out for

CSK's bowling. They traded Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran to Rajasthan Royals to bring in Samson. Veer is meant to pick up some of that slack and comes with a willingness to do what Jadeja rarely did - bowl his left-arm spin in the powerplay, though the sample size is very small and the level of those games in the UPT20 league cannot compare to the level he will be playing at for the next few weeks.

Matt Henry, Khaleel Ahmed and Akeal Hosein can be a good new-ball options but there is significant concern over who their back-end specialists will be. It's possible CSK will save some of wristspinner Noor Ahmad's overs for that stage now that they have let go of Matheesha Pathirana.

From a time when they had players with clear roles and skills suited to those roles - Deepak Chahar to handle the powerplay, Jadeja to work the middle overs and Dwayne Bravo to slow it all down at the death - CSK are now in a situation where, particularly with their bowling attack, it's like let's just try stuff and see what happens.

5:43

'CSK understand sportsmen. They understand what a cricketer needs'

Key stats

CSK's run-rate in the powerplay (8.7) and average (25.2) were the lowest of all teams in the league in 2025. Samson's arrival should help fix those numbers. He is coming off a Player-of-the-Tournament performance in the T20 World Cup. He is already among the top 15 run-getters in the IPL and is capable of scoring freely through both the off side and the leg side. Since the 2024 season, though, his strike rate against spin (138) is slightly off his strike rate against pace (155).

Should Samson offer the solidity that CSK expect from him, it might have a knock-on effect on the rest of the line-up. Shivam Dube might not have to set himself up to play long innings. He could go back to his high-impact ways. From a strike rate of 156 in 2022, 158 in 2023 and 162 in 2024, he dropped to just 132 in 2025. CSK's top-order troubles diminished him last season. This time he could be back at his best.

After three seasons where Dhoni struck around the 120 mark or lower, he settled into a role where he batted 10-12 balls per innings and concentrated on hitting every one of them for six. His strike rate in 2023 was 182. His strike rate in 2024 was 221. But last year, he had to play 145 balls, which was more than 2023 (57) and 2024 (73) combined, and he struggled, maintaining a strike rate of 135. CSK will want their top five to set them up better so Dhoni can go back to doing his thing.

CSK weren't too far off the mark with their death-overs bowling last year. Their economy rate (11) was comparable to the top team - Mumbai Indians (10.14). Will they be able to keep those levels?

3:52

What will life after Dhoni look like for CSK?

Who's out, who's in doubt?

Nathan Ellis' injury - coming on the very last day of the One-Day Cup season in Australia - is a big blow. He was going to be their banker: someone who will play all 14 games and take on the role of bowling the tough overs (17 to 20).

Hosein, who ended up stuck in a hotel with the rest of his West Indies team as they waited for flights to return home after the World Cup in the midst of the West Asia crisis, is likely to join CSK on March 25. Their first game is on March 30. So he'll barely have any time to acclimatise.

Veer hasn't played any cricket since January and Kartik since December, injuries limiting their participation in India's domestic tournaments. They are both fully fit now and have been hotting up the social media scene with their big hitting.

Matt Short picked up a finger injury playing his final game of the Sheffield Shield season earlier this month but has linked up with CSK.

Alagappan Muthu is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

Click here to read article