Chennai Super Kings (CSK) won’t just make changes to their squad but also to the support staff before the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season. Winning just 4 of the 14 matches, CSK ended dead last in the 18th edition. Nothing clicked for the 5-time champions.
The batting and bowling kept on changing throughout the tournament. Ruturaj Gaikwad got injured midway and MS Dhoni took over as captain, but nothing positive came about in terms of results. So, CSK had decided to make a few changes.
Bharat Arun, leaving KKR for CSK?
According to The Times of India, Bharat Arun will join the Yellow Army as their bowling coach for IPL 2026. Part of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) since 2022 as the bowling coach, Arun has parted ways with the franchise on a mutual agreement. KKR have made it official that they have parted ways with head coach Chandrakanth Pandit, but haven’t confirmed Arun’s departure yet.
As for CSK, Eric Simons is their bowling coach. The former South African fast bowler has been with them since 2018. They brought on Sridharan Sriram as the assistant bowling coach for IPL 2025. As of now, a top CSK official has denied bringing Arun on the board.
Speaking of Arun, he is one of the most respected coaches in India. He was the national team’s bowling coach from 2014 to 2015 and then again from 16 July 2017 until the end of the 2021 T20 World Cup. It was under him that India developed their pace quartet of Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, and Umesh Yadav.
Considering what he brings to the table, most teams would want to grab him up quickly. Having worked as the chief bowling coach at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) previously, he has built a connection with several Indian bowlers and has experience working with up-and-coming bowlers, as he was the India U-19 coach in the past as well.
Under Arun, fast bowlers like Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora have done extremely well. Harshit has already made his debut in all formats for India, while Vaibhav turned out to be KKR’s best pacer in IPL 2025 and took the joint-most wickets for them.
