Former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth has backed Suresh Raina to take over as CSK’s new batting coach for IPL 2027. Raina served CSK as a batter and vice-captain for a long time and delivered consistently for the franchise while batting at one drop.
Raina scored 5528 runs in 205 IPL matches at an average of 32.52 and a strike rate of 134.79.
Meanwhile, CSK recently parted ways with their former batting coach Matthew Hussey and the franchise will need to appoint a new batting coach. Furthermore, CSK have parted ways with fast bowling coach Eric Simmons and fielding coach James Foster.
The five-time champions recently appointed former Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan as the team’s chief coach on a one-year contract.
Kris Srikkanth said on his YouTube Channel, “Suresh Raina will be a good bet as the next batting coach. He has played almost his entire IPL career with CSK. So he will be very keen, and he’ll add value because he has played a lot with Zaheer Khan for India. Also, Dhoni and Raina get along very well. Even Mohit Sharma, Raina, and Dhoni have played together, so Raina will be a great choice.”
The 1983 World Cup-winning player backed Sridharan Sriram to continue as CSK assistant bowling coach.
He said, “Sridharan Sriram is a very good coach and should remain in the CSK coaching setup. He knows everything about Chennai and will be a good adviser to the team. KB Arun Karthik is a brilliant fielder and can be promoted as the fielding coach. He has been in the CSK setup and is very dedicated. This should be enough. Sriram can be an assistant to all of them, with Zaheer, Raina, Mohit Sharma, and Arun Karthik being the other coaches.”
The former chief selector doesn’t believe that former CSK skipper MS Dhoni would be able to play a full season.
“I don’t think he can play a full season. He can only play the odd matches. He didn’t play the entire last season, and every year, he’s getting older also. His mind may be willing to play, but his body should be willing. It’ll be hard for him as his eyesight and movements might not be up to the mark. Maybe he can be a player cum mentor for CSK,” said Srikkanth (via the aforementioned source).
CSK could not qualify for the IPL 2026 playoffs and would look to bounce back strongly in the next season.
