Stephen Fleming, the head coach, said that CSK might have been “a little bit slow” to keep up with the T20 game’s quick growth. The shift in perspective, he claimed, started halfway through the 2025 Indian Premier League when Dewald Brevis and uncapped batsmen Ayush Mhatre and Urvil Patel arrived as injury replacements, giving new life to a top order that had been having trouble keeping up with other teams’ pace.
The five-time winners Chennai Super Kings, who were often referred to as the IPL’s “Dad’s Army” due to their unflinching faith in experience, may have made their most significant shift to the future to yet.
For a combined record of INR 14.2 crore each, CSK acquired two uncapped young players at Tuesday’s IPL 2026 player auction in Abu Dhabi: Prashant Veer (20) and Kartik Sharma (19). This marked a significant break from the team’s guiding principle of relying on those who have been there and done that, which had characterised the team for the majority of its 16-season history.
Veer and Kartik were acquired for a total of INR 28.4 crore at this auction, despite CSK finishing last in 2025. Fleming claimed that the lessons learnt from that campaign influenced their strategy.
“We may have been a little bit slow to adapt to the game’s evolution,” Fleming remarked following the sale. “There was a significant change in our requirements almost halfway through the [most recent] competition, as you could see from the players we brought in as reserves. We realised that we needed to change, and in part the work we did midway through the previous season has allowed us to continue that work. Sometimes you can cling to theories and beliefs because of prior success.”
Fleming said that Mhatre, Urvil, Veer, and Kartik are representative of a generation that has been surrounded by Twenty20 cricket their entire lives. As he put it, “T20 babies” are cricket players who play freely and without the trepidation that occasionally comes with experience.
“I just wonder if we’re now seeing the product of T20 coming to the fore,” Fleming commented.
“As we saw at the beginning of last year, and definitely the year before that, I used to think that experience was going to win, but now you have this fearless athlete who was raised on T20 cricket and has an incredible skill set, and they simply don’t care what environment they need to display these abilities.
“The fact that T20 babies are now emerging is one thing to acknowledge. That’s just the mental component. In an attempt to figure out where the game is headed and what is happening, an experienced player may occasionally become absorbed in his own thoughts. These young players, however, are simply highly unrestrained and only know one way.
Thus, there is a lot of interest, particularly when the game is played more quickly. I believe that’s a result of T20 being around for a while; we’re all learning and participating in it, and these young players seem to play better the faster it gets.”
Actually, CSK had already started to move away from the past prior to the auction when it traded India wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson to the Rajasthan Royals for long-time mainstay Ravindra Jadeja. The decision, according to Fleming, was motivated by the need to fortify the top order as well as the necessity of making plans for after MS Dhoni, who is currently 44.
Fleming stated, “The opportunity was there.” “We thought our opening batting was still a little too light.” Additionally, we were considering the possibility that MS may eventually move on.
“Sanju is a player of international calibre who excels in that position, so succession planning is necessary.” And it’s a great chance to take another look at renovation and observe how Chennai will change in six years rather than two. and just ensuring that the players we are introducing have a succession [plan.”
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