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R Ashwin reveals that MS Dhoni never emphasized fitness at CSK, urging new coach Zaheer Khan to bring a cultural shift and a high-performance trainer to the franchise.
MS Dhoni didn’t play a single match in IPL 2026.
Photo by Faheem Hussain / CREIMAS for IPL
Ravichandran Ashwin has revealed that MS Dhoni never ’emphasised’ or bred a culture of training and fitness at Chennai Super Kings (CSK), urging new coach Zaheer Khan to bring a ‘cultural shift’ at the franchise, including by bringing in a high-performance trainer.
CSK have won five titles in the 17 seasons they have been part of the IPL, all of them coming under Dhoni’s captaincy. A hallmark of his sides was freedom for everyone, from youngsters to seniors, and an innate trust in the players to find solutions in the middle. The head coach for this era was Stephen Fleming, always known as a man-manager to Dhoni’s tactician, and thus watering the culture further.
Ashwin believes that with the league getting more cut-throat and longer, a bit of a push towards fitness, perhaps inspired by Virat Kohli, could go a long way.
“Under Dhoni, over the last 18 years, CSK have never had a training culture,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel. “Dhoni is an instinctive captain. In Kohli’s teams, fitness has been highly emphasised, and he has established a standard. But in CSK, under Dhoni, training has never been emphasised. Before, the tournament used to be six weeks. But now it’s a longer tournament, and most players play through the year.”
“So training is incredibly important. That cultural shift has to happen in CSK. I feel Zaheer will emphasize this because he knows this very well. Under Zaheer, they’ll definitely go for a high-performing trainer.”
Zaheer would be working closely with a young captain in Ruturaj Gaikwad and leading a relatively young team for CSK’s standards, which can help him stamp his authority. However, he is on quite a short contract and will need to balance the ‘win-now’ needs, too.
It needs to be seen if Dhoni takes a step back or steps further in with more control to help Zaheer, who was his choice as the head coach.
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Ravichandran Ashwin revealed that over the past 18 years, MS Dhoni never emphasized a strict training or fitness culture at Chennai Super Kings, relying instead on instinctive captaincy and player trust.
October 16, 2026, 20:21 IST
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