Chennai Super Kings (CSK) strongest playing 11 for IPL 2026 after mini auction

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) experienced their worst season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), finishing with the wooden spoon of the points table. They lost their captain, Ruturaj Gaikwad, at the start of the season last year due to an injury, which pushed the franchise to appoint MS Dhoni as the leader for the rest of the series.

MS Dhoni’s presence in the leadership position couldn’t make much difference in the side as they continued to suffer in the batting department, by not putting enough runs on the board for the bowlers to defend. Even on flat tracks, they were not able to up the run-rate.

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Once they got the young players, like Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, or Urvil Patel in the side, they realized the importance of chances in the playing eleven, which saw the franchise making a massive shift to the squad selection in the mini-auction in Abu Dhabi for the 2026 season.

Chennai Super Kings’ strongest playing 11 for IPL 2026 after mini-auction.

Chennai made a massive move by signing Sanju Samson ahead of the auction, which saw them end their decade-long relationship with the star spin all-rounder, Ravindra Jadeja, besides letting go of the star left-arm pace all-rounder from England, Sam Curran.

Chennai Super Kings full squad for IPL 2026

Ruturaj Gaikwad, Dewald Brevis, Ayush Mhatre, Sarfaraz Khan, Matt Short, Sanju Samson, MS Dhoni, Urvil Patel, Kartik Sharma, Shivam Dube, Zak Foulkes, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shreyas Gopal, Jamie Overton, Akeal Hosein, Aman Khan, Prashant Veer, Noor Ahmed, Rahul Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Nathan Ellis, Matt Henry, Gurjapneet Singh, Anshul Kamboj, Mukesh Choudhary.

CSK signed two uncapped players for a massive price of INR 14.2 crore each to the left-arm spin all-rounder, Prashant Veer, and the uncapped wicket-keeper batter, Karthik Sharma. The former is anticipated to be their future star as the replacement of Jadeja, while Karthik can be the new star wicket-keeper for the franchise after the potential retirement of MS Dhoni.

“Sometimes you can hang on to theories and philosophies because of past success, but we identified that we needed to shift, and partly the work that we did last season, halfway through, has enabled us to continue that work done.” Their head coach, Stephen Flemming, expressed after the end of the IPL 2026 auction.

CSK will face the headache of selecting their openers. They are likely to start with Samson and Mhatre at the opening position, followed by captain Gaikwad at number three. Dewald Brevis could find his feet at number four, with Shivam Dube being the spin hitter at number five. There will be discussions about whether they want to go with Karthik Sharma or Sarfaraz Khan at number six.

The latter, currently, has been in top notch with a strike rate of 203 in 330+ run campaign during the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2025/26 for Mumbai, which could push his place. Veer will be the left-arm spinner at seven, followed by Dhoni at eight.

Nathan Ellis was excellent with his slower deliveries at the death overs last year and will now need to lead the period in the absence of Matheesha Pathirana. Another toss-up will be between Matt Henruy and Akeal Hossein, depending on the conditions they are playing in.

Noor Ahmed, one of their most successful players of the IPL 2025, will be the last player of the eleven, with Khaleel Ahmed expected to be the impact player of the side.

CSK's strongest 11 for IPL 2026 after mini auction

Sanju Samson, Ayush Mhatre, Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Shivam Dube, Dewald Brevis, Karthik Sharma, Prashant Veer/Anshul Kamboj, MS Dhoni (wk..), Nathan Ellis, Matt Henry/Akeal Hossein, Noor Ahmed.

Impact player- Khaleel Ahmed.