Hello Yellow Army, Welcome to the first CSK Squad Update — a monthly round-up I'll be running from here on to track every current Chennai Super Kings player's injury status, recent form, and general goings-on, whether that's IPL cricket, domestic games, or international duty.
CSK's IPL 2026 campaign wrapped up months ago — obviously not on a good note - finishing eighth on the table, six wins, third straight season out of playoff. But "the season's over" doesn't mean the squad clocks out. Between rehab rooms, domestic red-ball cricket, and a few of them turning out for their national teams, there's actually been a fair bit going on with the current group. And off the field, CSK have already made their biggest call of the off-season: appointing Zaheer Khan as head coach for IPL 2027, filling the chair Stephen Fleming left empty after 18 years. Here's where everyone stands heading into the back half of 2026.
CSK Injury Update: Who's Fit, Who's Still Out
CSK's 2026 season was defined almost as much by the medical room as the scorecard — seven-plus first-team players missed time at various points — and a couple of those stories are still unfolding.
Ayush Mhatre had it worst - right in the middle of the season. The 19-year-old upcoming superstar tore his left hamstring against SRH on April 18 and was ruled out for the rest of IPL 2026, with an initial 6–12 week rehab timeline that then got complicated by a wrist injury on top of it. The good news: he's fit, back and already practicing by travelling hours in train from Virar to Bandra - that's the level of dedication for comeback, as Hindustan Times reported. His father, Yogesh Mhatre, has confirmed to the Times of India that Ayush is now completely fit in both hamstrings after training at the Mumbai Cricket Association's indoor facility at BKC for the past ten days — well enough that he's set to turn out for his club Sainath CC in a Kanga League 'B' Division match on Friday, October 2, his first competitive cricket in almost five months.
MS Dhoni managed his own IPL 2026 around a calf strain that kept him out of the opening stretch of the season, and while batting coach Michael Hussey said at the time Dhoni was "pretty close" to a return, there's no firm word on his broader playing status beyond that. Off the field though, Thala's been the busiest man in the building. He was reportedly in England back in June-July holding talks with Brendon McCullum over CSK's vacant head coach job, then turned up in the US for the management meeting that ultimately signed off on Zaheer Khan — a hire Dhoni himself is said to have recommended as per the media reports. He's since landed back in India, right as CSK go through this entire coaching reshuffle, which tells you exactly how involved he now is in team management beyond just padding up.
Jamie Overton left IPL 2026 at the most important juncture of the season, right in the middle of the playoff qualification race, with a right thigh injury, and hasn't played red-ball cricket since August 2025 — there was even a mini fact-check moment where fans mistook his twin brother Craig (playing for Somerset) for Jamie himself. The thigh recovered in time for The Hundred 2026, where he turned out for London Spirit — the same side as Dewald Brevis — and even had a fun family moment along the way, bowling to Craig in a match against Trent Rockets in July.
From there it was straight back into England colours: last played a T20I on 19 September and an ODI on 27 September, both against Sri Lanka, and he's now signed on with Melbourne Stars for the 2026-27 Big Bash League season alongside Craig — the first twins to feature together in men's Big Bash history.
Ramakrishna Ghosh fractured his right foot on IPL debut against Mumbai Indians on May 2, landing awkwardly in his follow-through — before the injury, in that same match, he'd already taken a catch to dismiss Will Jacks and the wicket of Suryakumar Yadav, and Stephen Fleming had praised his all-round progress. The fracture needed 6-12 weeks of recovery and ended his season after a single game. No confirmed word yet on whether he's back bowling in the nets or match-fit.
Khaleel Ahmed tore his quadriceps against KKR on April 14 and needed surgery, with a recovery time of 12-plus weeks. The latest word: he's currently in Chennai, spending a week at CSK's training centre working on his fitness and bowling, alongside Kartik Sharma. One thing worth watching too: Khaleel goes way back with Zaheer Khan — he worked under him as a young rookie at Delhi Daredevils in 2016 and has credited Zaheer's advice for helping an earlier injury comeback. Now that Zaheer's CSK's head coach, don't be surprised if Khaleel's recovery gets some extra attention from him once he's fully fit to bowl again.
Nathan Ellis never got a ball in for CSK — he aggravated an old hamstring injury in the domestic One-Day Cup final on March 11, right before the start of the IPL, with CSK saying at the time it would need "a minimum of three months of rehab" before he could bowl in match conditions again. He came back fit right after the IPL, though, and made it count: in Australia's ODI series in Zimbabwe, he sealed a series-clinching one-wicket thriller with a six off the very first ball of the last over, finishing unbeaten on 36. Bad luck struck again soon after, though — in the second ODI of the following series against South Africa, Ellis picked up a left side strain after four overs and had to walk off, ending his tour early. He's been sent home for further assessment and rehab, with Australia hoping to have him fit again for the home ODI series against England in November.
CSK's injury list ran so deep it reshaped the squad mid-season: Kuldip Yadav came in as Khaleel's replacement, Akash Madhwal replaced Mhatre, Dian Forrester replaced Overton, Macneil Noronha replaced Ghosh, and Spencer Johnson came in for Ellis himself — five separate replacement signings inside a few months, which tells you plenty about how bruising CSK's 2026 actually was behind the scenes.
CSK Players' Recent Form: Runs and Wickets Elsewhere
With no IPL cricket to play, the domestic and international calendar has been where you'd catch most of this squad in recent weeks.
Ruturaj Gaikwad had a rough IPL 2026 by his own standards — 337 runs at an average of 28.08 and a strike rate of 123.44, no hundred, a season that ended with some pointed questions about his dot-ball percentage, and renewed debate over whether he should even keep the captaincy heading into 2027.
Right after the IPL, he captained West Zone at the season-opening Duleep Trophy — a campaign that ended in the quarter-finals, beaten by North Zone by 52 runs, though Gaikwad himself top-scored with a fighting 66 (run out in a mix-up with Musheer Khan) after managing just five in the first innings.
He's bounced back into the India setup since, though: added to the India A squad for the 50-over tri-series in Sri Lanka (alongside Sri Lanka A and Afghanistan A) as a replacement for the injured Riyan Parag, and named vice-captain alongside Tilak Varma. He made it count immediately — a 114-ball 101 in the tri-series opener against Sri Lanka A in Dambulla, his 21st List A century, anchoring a 150-run stand with Tilak to help India A chase past 270-plus and win by eight runs.
He also captained India A in their List A matches against Australia A through September-October, and has now been picked in India's full ODI squad for the three-match series against West Indies (27 September-3 October) — a genuine vote of confidence heading into 2027 ODI WC. He made the XI for the middle order at Thiruvananthapuram too, walking in at No.4 during the chase and finishing unbeaten on 11 off 17 balls alongside Virat Kohli's 139*, as India cruised to an 8-wicket win.
Sanju Samson had a strong IPL 2026 — he hit his fifth IPL century off just 54 balls against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede in April, and also put to bed the will-he-take-the-captaincy chatter, saying flatly that he didn't walk into Chennai making demands.
His international run since has been far more on-and-off, though. He managed just six runs across three T20I innings — twice against Ireland, then in the series opener against England at Durham — before voluntarily making way for teenager Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's debut in the second T20I at Manchester. He was then left out of the squad for the Zimbabwe T20I series entirely, with the BCCI calling it a rest rather than a drop and giving youngsters like Prabhsimran Singh a look-in instead.
He answered all the selection chatter in style against Afghanistan next, smashing a 22-ball 57 in the second T20I — eight off his first ten balls, then 49 off the next twelve — to help India chase down 160 in 14.5 overs and seal the series 2-0. He also crossed 9,000 career T20 runs during that series. A quieter note followed in the one-off T20I against Japan in Sano on September 22 — part of a special fixture marking 75 years of India-Japan diplomatic relations — where he was out for 9 off 7 as India scraped home by just 2 runs. Up and down, but the Afghanistan innings especially was exactly the kind of form CSK will want to see more of.
Anshul Kamboj finished as CSK's leading wicket-taker in IPL 2026 with 21 scalps, and he's carried that form straight into the off-season across a genuinely packed calendar. He turned out for North Zone in the Duleep Trophy quarter-final against West Zone, and while the wickets didn't quite flow, he made his mark with the bat instead — a blistering 60 off 52 balls from No.9, five fours and five sixes, only the second fifty of his first-class career. He's been a regular fixture for India A since too: in the multi-day fixtures against Australia A, he picked up Nathan McSweeney and Peter Handscomb in consecutive overs to help set up a 162-run win on 26 September, and he's also in the mix for India A's assignments in the Sri Lanka tri-series and the tour of New Zealand. If there's one bowler quietly building a case for a bigger India role right now through sheer volume of cricket, it's him.
Dewald Brevis missed CSK's first three IPL 2026 matches with a side strain before returning to the XI, and he's been in outstanding form pretty much everywhere since. Before all that international cricket, he had a strong stint with London Spirit in The Hundred 2026 — a maiden Hundred fifty (55* off 31, including a 97-metre no-look six) against Birmingham Phoenix, plus knocks of 37* and 39 in other games. Then came the T20I tri-series with Zimbabwe and Namibia in Windhoek (28 August-6 September), where he was outstanding — 226 runs in five innings at an average of 56.50 and a strike rate north of 166, with two fifties (including that 75 off 50 against Namibia and an unbeaten 75 off just 32 against Zimbabwe) and 16 sixes along the way, good enough to be named Player of the Series. He followed that up in the South Africa-Namibia ODI series, with his last ODI coming against Namibia on 13 September. A properly strong year for him after last year's fitness scare. What we expect from Brevis, he's delivering — league cricket, tri-series, ODIs, all of it — and hopefully that translates into CSK colours next season too.
Shivam Dube has stayed a regular part of India's plans through the year. Between international assignments he also captained Arcs Andheri in the T20 Mumbai League 2026, leading them all the way to the final — a 45* off nine balls remaining in the semi-final win over Aakash Tigers MWS, plus 9 wickets in 6 games with the ball, a proper all-round showing. That semi-final also had a small side story: Aakash Tigers included Sarfaraz Khan, who used that same tournament (161 runs in five innings, one fifty) to force his way back into India's Test squad for the Sri Lanka series as a replacement for the injured Sai Sudharsan. His form has kept building since — he's now been named vice-captain of Rishabh Pant's Rest of India side for the Irani Cup 2026-27 against Ranji champions Jammu and Kashmir, starting October 1 in Srinagar.
On the international side, Dube was in the T20I squad for the England tour in July, then picked in the ODI squad for the same tour as a replacement for the injured Nitish Kumar Reddy, and was also part of the squad for the Zimbabwe T20I series. More recently, he featured in the T20I series against Afghanistan, scoring 22 in the third T20I on 17 September as India closed out the series. He's currently with the squad at the Asian Games 2026 (19 September–4 October in Aichi-Nagoya) under Shreyas Iyer, where India have reached the semi-finals after their quarter-final against Afghanistan was washed out and India advanced as the higher-ranked side.
The Rest of the CSK Squad: Every Other Player's Latest News
Urvil Patel, the backup gloveman CSK picked up ahead of IPL 2026, had arguably the individual highlight of Chennai's season: a 65 off 23 balls against Lucknow that included a 13-ball fifty, level with Yashasvi Jaiswal's effort in 2023 for the joint-fastest half-century in IPL history. Eight of his ten boundaries that day were sixes, all pumped into the leg side — enough to get him firmly onto CSK's all-time six-hitting leaderboard in a single innings. He was also part of Gaikwad's West Zone squad in the Duleep Trophy, contributing 25 off 35 balls in the quarter-final before being trapped in front by Nishant Sindhu, as North Zone — inspired by Abid Mushtaq — won by 52 runs.
Mukesh Choudhary had a season defined by more than cricket — he played on for CSK against Mumbai Indians shortly after losing his mother, with the whole squad wearing black armbands and Ruturaj Gaikwad dedicating the win to him afterwards. He was in that same West Zone Duleep Trophy squad as well, picking up a wicket with the ball in a quarter-final West Zone ultimately lost by 52 runs.
Gurjapneet Singh finally got a proper IPL 2026 game after sitting out the whole of 2025 unused, featuring alongside Matt Short against Gujarat Titans. Since then he's kept himself busy in domestic T20 cricket too — turning out for Madurai Panthers in TNPL 2026, where he chipped in with an unlikely 21 off 9 balls and a 16-ball, 42-run ninth-wicket stand to help pull off a two-wicket win over Trichy Grand Cholas.
Matt Short has had a genuinely huge year across three different leagues. He was picked up by Welsh Fire for The Hundred 2026, then had a superb MLC 2026 season captaining the San Francisco Unicorns to the top of the standings — 513 runs and 17 wickets across the tournament, including a 4/17 spell that blew away MI New York, and a Team of the Tournament nod for his all-round showing. He's now already into Australia's domestic season too: a sharp one-handed return catch to remove Queensland captain Marnus Labuschagne off the very first ball he bowled in the 2026–27 One-Day Cup opener on 19 September.
Akeal Hosein has stayed just as busy. He was part of Trinbago Knight Riders' title-winning CPL squad alongside the likes of Sunil Narine and Nicholas Pooran, and more recently he's back on national duty — already part of the West Indies squad for the three-ODI leg of their white-ball tour of India, which got underway on 27 September with the first ODI in Thiruvananthapuram, the first India–West Indies 50-over meeting since 2023 — and, per CSK's official update, he's now also been named in the West Indies squad for the five-match T20I series that follows, starting October 6 under new captain Shai Hope.
Noor Ahmad, CSK's IPL 2025 spin spearhead (24 wickets that season), had a genuinely big year across the league circuit too. He starred for Manchester Super Giants in The Hundred 2026, picking up three wickets in the final to help them win their maiden title at Lord's. It wasn't all smooth sailing, though — he was set to play for defending champions St Lucia Kings in CPL 2026 (having taken 22 wickets there in 2024) before the Afghanistan Cricket Board revoked his NOC and ruled him out entirely, with Tim Seifert brought in as his replacement.
Spencer Johnson came into IPL 2026 as a mid-season replacement for the injured Nathan Ellis after recovering from a back injury that had already cost him the BBL. He's since been reunited with Ellis in the actual Australian side — the pair put on the winning stand together in that Zimbabwe ODI series decider mentioned above.
Shreyas Gopal, one of the rare bowlers with an IPL hat-trick to his name (Kohli, de Villiers, and Stoinis among the scalps), has stayed busy since IPL 2026 too. He led Coastal Kings Mangaluru in the Maharaja Trophy T20, picking up 13 wickets in 11 innings to help the side through to Qualifier 2.
He also hit a genuine career milestone at the Duleep Trophy final in Chennai, turning out for South Zone for his 100th first-class appearance — more than 300 wickets, over 4,000 runs, ten five-wicket hauls, six hundreds and 21 fifties along the way.
Akash Madhwal, the ex-Mumbai Indians quick who once returned 5/5 in an IPL eliminator, joined as Mhatre's replacement mid-season; Macneil Noronha, a Karnataka all-rounder fresh off winning the MA Chidambaram Trophy for most runs in the 2024–25 Col CK Nayudu Trophy, replaced Ghosh; and Kuldip Yadav, a left-arm pacer back in the IPL after an earlier stint with Rajasthan Royals, replaced Khaleel — none of the three has significant news since their signing beyond the circumstances that brought them in.
Dian Forrester, South African all-rounder who came in for Overton, has stayed inside the Super Kings family since — he signed on with Texas Super Kings for MLC 2026, replacing the injured Nandre Burger, working once again under a coach he already knows well in Stephen Fleming, having previously featured with him at both Joburg Super Kings in the SA20 and CSK itself.
He's kept up a packed year elsewhere too: signed by Perth Scorchers for the 2026 Guyana Global Super League, where he took a sharp catch off Rahmanullah Gurbaz during a 16-ball 42 against the Guyana Amazon Warriors, and picked for South Africa A's tour of England to face the Lions — a reward for form good enough to have already earned him a maiden South Africa T20I cap against New Zealand back in March.
Zak Foulkes, CSK's Kiwi pace pickup, had already made headlines before the IPL even started — a 9-for-75 haul on Test debut against Zimbabwe in August 2025, the best-ever figures by a New Zealander on Test debut, followed by a rockier note in January's T20I series in India, where he conceded 67 runs in three overs, the most expensive spell by a New Zealander in T20I history.
Aman Hakim Khan playing for Villianur Mohit Kings in the Puducherry Premier League 2026, he smashed 129 off 43 balls against Mahe Megalo Strikers, reaching his hundred in just 34 balls (six fours, 15 sixes) — the second-fastest century by an Indian in any Indian T20 league. Across the tournament he racked up 487 runs at a strike rate of 234.94 (five fifties, one century) plus 12 wickets with the ball, exactly the kind of form that could put him back in CSK's plans after a season spent entirely on the bench.
PR Veer had a big domestic season away from CSK, and it was one for both bat and ball. Playing for Noida Super Kings in the UP T20 League 2026, the left-arm spinner finished as his team's highest run-scorer with 245 runs at an average of 40.83 and a strike rate above 160, with three fifties.
With the ball, he was just as sharp — 11 wickets at an average of 21.18, including a wicket maiden in the fifth over and another maiden in the seventh against Kashi Rudras, a spell that helped Noida to a five-wicket win. The real highlight, though, came in the Eliminator rematch against the same Kashi Rudras side: a 28-ball 58* down the order, capped by a brutal final over — 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 1, 27 runs off it — that dragged Noida home by a single run. A genuinely complete all-round season for a 20-year-old.
One name worth flagging carefully: Vansh Bedi, who was part of CSK's IPL 2025 squad, was released by the franchise and went unsold at this year's mega auction, so he isn't part of the current squad. He resurfaced in the news this September after being linked — by online speculation, not any official finding — to a Tehelka sting operation alleging misuse of confidential team information in the Delhi Premier League. Bedi has strongly and publicly denied being the unnamed player referenced, reported the approach to authorities, and says he's pursuing legal action over what he calls false and defamatory claims. Worth noting for context, but he's a former CSK player, not a current one.
Rahul Chahar, fresh off an eight-match County Championship deal with Surrey (and confirming his divorce from wife Ishani Johar just before IPL 2026), has been earning his keep with the ball in England. Playing against Essex at Chelmsford, he picked up a six-wicket haul (22-4-80-6) to help bowl Essex out for 279, though the match itself ended in a draw.
MJ Henry spent the English summer with Trent Rockets in The Hundred 2026, and had a nice moment of his own — a full delivery that snuck through Joe Root's premeditated scoop and clattered into leg stump, part of a clinical Trent Rockets win over Welsh Fire that handed them their first defeat of the tournament.
Kartik Sharma — already mentioned above, currently at CSK's training centre alongside Khaleel Ahmed — and KK Ahmed and SN Khan round out the squad without much else to report from the past few weeks beyond their IPL 2026 involvement. Worth watching all three regardless, given the ongoing IPL 2027 trade rumour mill and the pre-auction trade window running through December — several current squad members could look very different in a CSK shirt (or not be in one at all) by the time IPL 2027 rolls around.
And it's not just the playing XI in flux: with Zaheer Khan now confirmed as head coach for a single-season IPL 2027 deal, expect his own read on this squad — who he trusts with the ball in Chepauk conditions especially — to start shaping team-selection stories well before the season starts. Our breakdown of how Chepauk itself has changed since 2008 is worth a read alongside this if you want the fuller picture of what Zaheer's actually walking into.
Bottom line: this was never going to be a quiet off-season, and it hasn't been. Mhatre's back in the nets, Ellis went from series-winning hero to injured again inside a fortnight, Brevis and Kamboj are playing more cricket than most people can keep track of, and Dhoni's clearly been doing a lot more than just rehab — the coaching reshuffle around Zaheer Khan has his fingerprints all over it. Add in a genuinely stacked replacement list and a trade rumour mill that's only going to get louder as December's mini-auction nears, and CSK's 2027 squad is shaping up to look very different from the one that finished eighth this year.
This is the first edition of our monthly CSK Squad Update — I'll be back in October with the next one, so check back for the latest on every current CSK player.
Stay healthy stay yellow.