CSK New Coaching Staff 2027 Explained: Who Left, Who Joined, Who Stays

Hello Yellow Army!

Yesterday it looked like CSK started an early Diwali deep cleaning of their staff management, officially announcing the exits of various support staff, and today they finally announced the fresh faces for those roles as well. After weeks of reports and half-confirmations, we finally have the official picture, all through CSK's own social handles.

If you have been following along, this is a big chapter of a long story, though not the last one, since a few roles like the batting coach are still to be filled. I have covered each step of it so far, so let me put it together in one place.

CSK Coaching Staff Changes Timeline: From Fleming's Exit to IPL 2027

• July: after the IPL 2026 and then the MLC 2026 season were over, Stephen Fleming finally stepped down as head coach, not just of CSK but of all the Super Kings franchises, Texas Super Kings and Joburg Super Kings as well, ending an 18-year association with Chennai.
• Late July: JSK made Albie Morkel their head coach, before the retained and pre-signed players were announced and well before the SA20 auction.
• September: CSK named Zaheer Khan as the new head coach for IPL 2027.
• October: JSK made their own changes official, with Allan Donald as the new bowling coach in place of Eric Simons, and Evan Speechly as the new physio in place of Tommy Simsek.
• End of October: CSK made their own exits official and announced the new faces, with the IPL player retention deadline on 15 November and the mini-auction on 16 December.

CSK Coaching Staff Who Left: Hussey, Simons, Rajiv Kumar, Simsek and Greg King

Let's begin with our backbones, the people who bid farewell to CSK after long years of service to us. These are the names who rarely get the spotlight, but they were there behind the scenes through the title wins, the tough seasons and everything in between. Yesterday, CSK officially parted ways with five of them, and the franchise posted a thank-you message for each of them on social media.

Here is the full list of CSK coaches and support staff who have left:

• Mike Hussey, CSK batting coach
• Eric Simons, CSK bowling coach
• Rajiv Kumar, CSK assistant batting coach
• Tommy Simsek, CSK physio
• Greg King, CSK strength and conditioning coach

Let's give each of them a proper goodbye, one by one.

Mike Hussey: I still remember his first match for CSK as a player, where he struck a century, and he kept performing for us in the years that followed. He was there when we won in 2010 and 2011 as well, and those are good old memories of the winning years. Then, after CSK came back from the ban, he joined us again in 2018, not as a player this time but as our batting coach, and he was with us for the titles in 2018, 2021 and 2023. I wrote about what he meant to Chennai when the news first came out.

Eric Simons: He has been with us since 2018, and as I wrote earlier, he worked with our bowlers and got more than 100% out of them. Most of them were names that were never big, but they always delivered. That is what CSK became known for, taking an average-name bowler and getting a champion's performance out of him whenever it was needed. He is also reported to be joining Fleming's England Test staff, as I covered in this article.

Rajiv Kumar: He was our assistant batting coach, and in CSK's words, a valued member of the coaching setup who contributed significantly to the team's preparation, development and performances over the years. One thing I need to correct from my own earlier coverage: after the Zaheer Khan appointment, The Indian Express had reported that he was expected to continue. That did not happen, so treat my line about it in the Zaheer Khan article as outdated.

Tommy Simsek: A physio may never come on the field to play for us, but he is one of the most important people in the squad. Since the very first season in 2008, Tommy took care of all our players, their injuries and their health, for all of these long 18 years. And now he is no longer a part of not just CSK, but JSK as well, as JSK thanked him too.

Greg King: The man behind the fitness of our players. As our strength and conditioning coach, Greg worked on keeping our players strong and fit, so that they could handle the physical load of a long season and still perform at their best, season after season. You rarely see this kind of work on the TV screen, but you do see the result on the field.

Thank you, Hussey, Simons, Rajiv, Tommy and Greg, for all your service to the Super Kings family. We will miss you, we wish you all the best in whatever comes next, and we will always be there to support you wherever you go. 💛

New CSK Coaches for IPL 2027: Morkel, Mohit Sharma and Batty

After the goodbyes, it is time to welcome our new faces. Though to be honest, most of them are not really new faces for the Super Kings, because Albie Morkel and Mohit Sharma have already worn the yellow jersey as players, and now they are back in a different role. Only Gareth Batty is the genuinely new face in this group. So welcome, all of you, to the Super Kings family! 💛

Here is the list of the new CSK coaches for IPL 2027:

• Albie Morkel, CSK assistant coach
• Mohit Sharma, CSK bowling coach
• Gareth Batty, CSK assistant coach

Now let's meet our new faces one by one.

Albie Morkel: CSK Assistant Coach and OG Super King

Let's start with Albie, who was upgraded to head coach at Joburg Super Kings just a few months ago. Well, I believe this is a very good move by CSK, considering Morkel already has coaching experience within the Super Kings family, where he has now moved up to head coach, and now CSK are bringing him into the main setup as well.

And there is no introduction needed for him. He is the real old Super King, right from season one, who showed his impact with both bat and ball and delivered iconic performances for generations of fans. If you look at his numbers as a CSK player, he played 77 matches, scored 828 runs at a strike rate of 144.8 with 51 fours and 48 sixes, and took 76 wickets at an economy of 8.10. He was with us from 2008 to 2013 and part of both of our back-to-back title wins in 2010 and 2011.

It will be interesting to see how he moulds himself now: first as head coach at JSK in the SA20 starting 17 January 2027, and then taking all that experience with him to the IPL in March.

Mohit Sharma: CSK Bowling Coach and 2014 Purple Cap Winner

Who can forget those slower balls and clever variations of Mohit? He made his IPL debut in yellow in 2013 and finished that season as our second highest wicket-taker with 20 wickets, behind only another OG, Dwayne Bravo, who won the Purple Cap that year. Then in 2014 Mohit won the Purple Cap himself.

If you look at his numbers for CSK, he played 48 matches across 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019 and took 58 wickets at an economy of 7.82. By season, it was 20 wickets in 15 matches in 2013, 23 in 16 in 2014 (the Purple Cap year), 14 in 16 in 2015 and 1 in his single match in 2019.

And do I need to remind you of another iconic scene from the 2023 IPL final? Mohit was the one bowling that last over for Gujarat, standing between us and the trophy. Jadeja needed 10 runs off the last 2 balls, and for a moment Mohit almost cost us another trophy, but ultimately Jadeja won it for us, and we got that iconic picture of Dhoni lifting Jadeja. Funny how the man who gave us that heartbreak is now joining our own dugout.

He fills the bowling coach spot that Simons has left, something I had been mentioning since the Hussey article, and it seems it was Zaheer Khan who recommended him. His experience along with Zaheer Khan is what we needed in our bowling unit: the variations in balls, the awareness, and the bowling intelligence to read the situation on the ground and trick the batter. That is exactly what cost us a lot of matches this IPL season.

Gareth Batty: CSK Assistant Coach from Surrey

Now this foreign import also seems like Zaheer's long, old connection recommendation for sure. Batty is a former England off-spinner with 9 Tests, 10 ODIs and a T20I, and as a coach he led Surrey to three County Championship titles in a row, from 2022 to 2024, and then in 2025 they were runners-up as well.

And it does not end here. You may think he only has experience in red-ball cricket, but he has been in white-ball cricket too, being part of the Oval Invincibles men's coaching set-up in The Hundred, the franchise which won the title in 2023 and is now MI London.

Truthfully, more than his experience, his cricketing mind is what he is known for. And Batty and Zaheer Khan were both at Worcestershire in 2006, so that long connection has been recalled, maybe by our coach.

Who Stays: James Foster and Sridharan Sriram Continue at CSK

Well, not all of the backroom has been emptied. A few have been kept as well, our fielding coach James Foster and assistant coach Sridharan Sriram.

Although Foster was named in England's staff along with Fleming and Simons, it seems, looking at the timing, the management is okay to give it a shot this time. Good news for the Yellow Army, as the fielding group stays in the same hands.

CSK Support Staff 2027: Full List at a Glance

Do you see anything missing here? Yes, the batting coach, the replacement of Mike Hussey, is what CSK are still waiting to announce. Most probably it should come out in a few days, considering the IPL retention deadline is also near.

The physio and strength and conditioning roles have no official name yet either. Could CSK think of merging in the new support staff JSK have announced, like physio Evan Speechly?

My Take on CSK's Coaching Staff Overhaul

Honestly, this is a proper reset, and for a team that missed the playoffs three years in a row, I get why. What I like is that it is not a complete clean sweep: Foster and Sriram give some continuity, and Morkel and Mohit are people who have been through the CSK dressing room, so they know what the franchise expects.

The big question marks are the batting department and the fitness side. Hussey was a huge part of how our batters were handled, and CSK are still to name his replacement as batting coach. And with the retention deadline and then the mini-auction in December coming up, Zaheer will be hoping the rest of the staff gets settled quickly.

Now the backroom looks fresh, and that will surely bring new energy and new ideas. Gone are those who served us for so long, so I am definitely hoping for something new. But obviously we can't expect everything to be perfect from day 1. It will take time to adjust and gel with the CSK players. The coaches might not be new to the CSK setup, but they will have new connections and relations to form with our new players like Ayush Mhatre, Kartik Sharma, Urvil Patel, Sanju Samson, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj and Noor Ahmad.

Who do you think CSK should add next for the physio and batting roles?

Stay healthy stay yellow.