Zaheer Khan has been appointed as the head coach of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) ahead of the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2027 season. On Monday, the franchise announced the signing of its new head coach. Now, former India batter Sadagoppan Ramesh has questions over the appointment of Zaheer as the head coach of the five-time IPL champions.
CSK did not have the best of seasons in recent times; they failed to qualify for the playoffs for three consecutive seasons. In the last season, they finished 8th in the points table, and after that, they sacked their head coach Stephen Fleming after 19 long seasons. He was the longest-serving coach in IPL history. Zaheer has big shoes to fill.
Sadagoppan Ramesh showcases concern over Zaheer Khan’s appointment as CSK head coach
While speaking on his Instagram handle, Sadagoppan Ramesh revealed that Zaheer Khan is an amazing cricketer and a brilliant bowler. However, he finds a major concern in his coaching, as the left-arm pacer previously worked in an operations role for the Mumbai Indians (MI) and for just a year for the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) as a mentor.
“Zaheer was a great cricketer and a fantastic bowler. But his only coaching experience has been working in the cricketing operations for MI from 2018 to 2022 and one year with LSG as mentor. However, this is the first time he’ll be the head coach of an IPL franchise. So we have to keep our fingers crossed.”
Zaheer Khan’s coaching career
This is the first time that Zaheer Khan has been appointed as the head coach since 2022 to 2024, as he worked as the Global Head of Cricket Development for MI. Before that, he served as the Director of Cricket from 2018 to 2022. For one year, from 2024 to 2025, he worked with the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) as the mentor.
He was also the bowling consultant for the India team back in 2017, but did not take up the role full-time. In 2026, he was at BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru in March 2026, where he set up a camp to nurture young fast bowlers.
Sadagoppan Ramesh reveals reason behind CSK’s appointment of Zaheer Khan
Ramesh also believes that former India pacer Ashish Nehra, who is the head coach of Gujarat Titans (GT), has brought success to the franchise since 2022, which has caused CSK to believe in an Indian head coach, as they brought in Zaheer, as he is the first Indian coach.
Witnessing the success of Ashish Nehra with GT, the franchise wanted to try the same thing for a turnaround in their fate, as the Men in Yellow have failed to qualify for the playoffs in the last three seasons.
“Finally, CSK have an Indian head coach for the first time. They’ve finally gone from a foreign coach mentality to an Indian coach mentality. I feel CSK saw the success of Ashish Nehra with GT and wanted to try something similar with the appointment of Zaheer Khan to see if it can spark a turnaround,” said Ramesh