New Delhi. Former Indian team fast bowler Zaheer Khan has become the head coach of Chennai Super Kings (CSK). CSK announced Zaheer's appointment through social media on Monday. Zaheer will replace Stephen Fleming who resigned from the post of head coach after the IPL 2026 season. CSK and Stephen Fleming had decided to part ways with each other with mutual consent, after which Chennai has handed over this responsibility to Zaheer.
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Left Arm “Taking” Over! 💫🦁
Welcoming Zaheer Khan as the Head Coach of Chennai Super Kings!#WhistlePodu #yellow 🦁💛
—Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) September 21, 2026
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Fleming's tenure was successful
Fleming was serving as the head coach of CSK for a long time, but just a few months after the IPL 2026 season, he had decided to leave the team. Stephen Fleming joined Chennai Super Kings as a player in the first season of IPL in 2008. After this, in the year 2009, he took over as the head coach of the team. CSK and Fleming have had a strong partnership for the last 17 years and the franchise has achieved many successes. Under the guidance of Fleming, CSK touched new dimensions of success. Under his coachship, CSK won five IPL trophies and the Champions League T20 title twice. Not only this, CSK made it to the playoffs a record 12 times and reached the IPL finals 10 times.
Big challenge in front of Zaheer
CSK team last became IPL champion in 2023, but since then the team's performance has not been good. CSK team could not even qualify for the playoffs for three consecutive seasons. In 2024, 2025 and 2026, the team's journey stopped in the group stage itself. CSK finished fifth in 2024, while in 2025 they finished at the bottom 10th position. At the same time, in the 2026 season, the team ended its campaign by finishing eighth. Now making changes in coaching before the next season indicates that the team has started preparing for a strong comeback in IPL 2027. In such a situation, the challenge before Zaheer is to bring this team back to the level for which the team is famous.
Zaheer has joined many teams
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After retiring from IPL in 2017, Zaheer has worked in many different roles. After playing for three teams, RCB, Mumbai and Delhi, he was made the Mumbai Indians' Director of Cricket Operations ahead of IPL 2019 and later became the team's Global Development Head. He was appointed the mentor of Lucknow Super Giants for IPL 2025, but he parted ways with the franchise before the next season. As a player, Zaheer played 100 IPL matches and took 102 wickets at an average of 27.27. This was a part of his illustrious Indian career, in which he took a total of 610 wickets across all formats.