Former Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin has backed Zaheer Khan’s appointment as Chennai Super Kings’ head coach for IPL 2027. Ashwin said Khan has the ability to disagree with MS Dhoni. Dhoni is supposed to have played a key role in roping Khan as the chief coach of the franchise after Stephen Fleming parted ways with the team.
Khan doesn’t have any head coach experience, but he has served as Mumbai Indians’ Director of Cricket Operations ahead of IPL 2019, before becoming their head of global development.
More recently, he was named Lucknow Super Giants’ mentor for IPL 2025 but didn’t continue in the next season. Ashwin said Dhoni and Khan shared a good bonhomie with each other during their India career.
Ravichandran Ashwin said on his YouTube Channel, “Zaheer has the ability to disagree with Dhoni. Many others, like Ruturaj Gaikwad, cannot disagree with Dhoni and suggest some other combination. But Zaheer can, and he can also put a hand on Dhoni’s shoulder and make suggestions because he was a senior player when Dhoni was the captain, and they have such a rapport.”
“MS Dhoni and Zaheer Khan get along very well. They used to get along very well even in a captain-player relationship. So, it is clear that this decision was made after Dhoni’s sign-off. What will really work with CSK is that Zaheer’s smartness and intuitiveness, along with his structure and intelligence, won’t have major differences of opinion with Dhoni. They will both talk to each other and agree.”
On the other hand, the former CSK off-spinner, Ashwin, reckons Sanju Samson has a good shot at becoming the team’s captain under Zaheer Khan.
“It will be interesting to see if Zaheer Khan wants Ruturaj Gaikwad to remain captain or wants a change in leadership. If what I am hearing is right, it looks like Sanju Samson might have a good shot at becoming captain. I am hearing that Sanju could get a crack at captaincy. But I don’t know how true it is,” said Ashwin (via the aforementioned source).
Samson has the experience of leading Rajasthan Royals in the IPL.
