The 2026 season was Chennai Super Kings' seventeenth appearance in the Indian Premier League (IPL). They were one of the ten cricket teams that competed in the 2026 IPL. The team was captained by Ruturaj Gaikwad and coached by Stephen Fleming.
Chennai Super Kings were the third team to be eliminated from the 2026 IPL and finished the season in eighth place with six wins from 14 matches. Sanju Samson scored the most runs (477) while Anshul Kamboj took the most wickets (21) for Chennai in the 2026 season.
Pre-season
The 2026 Indian Premier League was the 19th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league held in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Chennai Super Kings are the joint-most successful franchise with 5 title wins. The team finished in tenth place in the previous season. The tournament featured ten teams competing in 74 matches from 28 March to 31 May 2026. Chennai played all their home matches at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium. Chennai's matches against Gujarat Titans (match 37 and match 66) were switched venues due to the 2026 Gujarat local elections.
Player retention Franchises were allowed to retain any number of players from their squad, including traded players while excluding players signed as temporary replacements. Franchises were required to submit their retention lists before 15 November 2025. Chennai retained sixteen players, including captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and former captain MS Dhoni. Chennai also traded their former captain Ravindra Jadeja along with Sam Curran to Rajasthan Royals in return for Sanju Samson.
+ Retained players Domestic Overseas Khaleel Ahmed Mukesh Choudhary MS Dhoni Shivam Dube Ruturaj Gaikwad Ramakrishna Ghosh Shreyas Gopal Anshul Kamboj Ayush Mhatre Urvil Patel Sanju Samson Gurjapneet Singh Noor Ahmad Dewald Brevis Nathan Ellis Jamie Overton + Released players Batters Wicket-keepers All-rounders Bowlers Shaik Rasheed Andre Siddarth Rahul Tripathi Vansh Bedi Devon Conway Ravichandran Ashwin Sam Curran Deepak Hooda Ravindra Jadeja Rachin Ravindra Vijay Shankar Kamlesh Nagarkoti Matheesha Pathirana
Auction The season's auction took place on 16 December 2025 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The auction purse for each franchise was set at , with franchises being deducted an amount from the purse for every retained player. Chennai had a purse remaining of . Chennai bought nine players in the auction, including six capped players and four overseas players.
+ Auctioned players Domestic Overseas Capped Uncapped Capped Uncapped Rahul Chahar Sarfaraz Khan Aman Khan Kartik Sharma Prashant Veer Zak Foulkes Matt Henry Akeal Hosein Matthew Short
Squad Players with international caps as of start of 2026 IPL are listed in bold. Ages are as of . Withdrawn players are indicated by a dagger symbol () and placed at the bottom of the table.
+ Chennai Super Kings squad for the 2026 Indian Premier League Name Nationality Birth date Batting style Bowling style Salary Notes 2 Matthew Short Right-handed Right-arm off break Overseas 7 MS Dhoni Right-handed Right-arm medium 9 Gurjapneet Singh Right-handed Left-arm fast-medium 10 Kuldip Yadav Left-handed Left-arm fast-medium Replacement 11 Sanju Samson Right-handed 12 Dewald Brevis Right-handed Right-arm leg spin Overseas 13 Prashant Veer Left-handed Left-arm slow orthodox 14 Dian Forrester Left-handed Right-arm fast-medium Overseas; replacement 15 Noor Ahmad Right-handed Left-arm wrist-spin Overseas 16 Akash Madhwal Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Replacement 17 Rahul Chahar Right-handed Right-arm leg spin 19 Shreyas Gopal Right-handed Right-arm leg spin 21 Akeal Hosein Left-handed Left-arm slow orthodox Overseas 23 Aman Hakim Khan Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium 24 Matt Henry Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Overseas 25 Shivam Dube Left-handed Right-arm medium 26 Kartik Sharma Right-handed 27 Macneil Noronha Right-handed Right-arm off break Replacement 31 Ruturaj Gaikwad Right-handed Right-arm off break Captain 35 Zak Foulkes Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Overseas 37 Urvil Patel Right-handed 45 Spencer Johnson Left-handed Left-arm fast Overseas; replacement 47 Anshul Kamboj Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium 90 Mukesh Choudhary Left-handed Left-arm fast-medium 97 Sarfaraz Khan Right-handed Right-arm leg spin 1 Ramakrishna Ghosh Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Withdrawn 56 Ayush Mhatre Right-handed Right-arm off break Withdrawn 71 Khaleel Ahmed Right-handed Left-arm fast-medium Withdrawn 72 Nathan Ellis Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Overseas; withdrawn 88 Jamie Overton Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Overseas; withdrawn
Support staff Sridharan Sriram joined the squad as a bowling coach.
Position Name Head coach Stephen Fleming Batting coach Michael Hussey Bowling coach Eric SimonsSridharan Sriram Fielding coach Rajiv Kumar Source: News18
League stage Chennai Super Kings began their season with consecutive losses to Rajasthan, Punjab Kings, and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. They won their next two matches against Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders, lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad, won against Mumbai Indians, and lost to Gujarat. They won their next three matches against Mumbai, Delhi and Lucknow Super Giants but lost their last three matches of the season to Lucknow, Hyderabad, and Gujarat. They finished league stage at the eighth place with twelve points and were eliminated from the 2026 IPL. This was the first year since the IPL's inauguration in 2008 where MS Dhoni did not play any matches.
Points table
League progression
Fixtures
Statistics
+ Most runs Runs Player 477 Sanju Samson 337 Ruturaj Gaikwad 295 Kartik Sharma 270 Shivam Dube 201 Ayush Mhatre + Most wickets Wickets Player 21 Anshul Kamboj 14 Jamie Overton 13 Noor Ahmad 8 Akeal Hosein Mukesh Choudhary
References
External links
Chennai Super Kings at IPLT20.com