Chennai Super Kings finally saw Noor Ahmad repay the faith the franchise has placed in him. After a stretch of indifferent outings in IPL 2026, the Afghan wrist-spinner delivered a decisive spell against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Tuesday, finishing with figures of 3 for 21 from four overs. The CSK camp was understandably pleased to watch the turnaround take shape, and while Noor’s performance did the talking, the skipper’s backroom also played a clear role in setting him up for the match.
Speaking after the win at the post-match press conference, CSK’s bowling coach Sridharan Sriram explained that Noor’s improvements were not accidental—they came from specific adjustments made for the conditions and the opposition. Sriram said the pitch offered some help, with enough assistance in the air to make the ball behave differently, but pointed out that Noor was also able to extract that advantage in a way he had not consistently managed earlier in the tournament.
“It was good. The wicket helped today. There was a little bit of turn for him. The other wickets are quite flat, but today it was a little slower through the air. There was more side spin on the ball and more drop,” Sriram said following CSK’s victory over the Knight Riders.
The coach added that the work behind the scenes centred on fine-tuning how Noor generates his leg-break and how he gets the ball to behave at the right stage of the delivery. In particular, Sriram credited MS Dhoni with a detailed conversation during a training session, describing it as a key factor in bringing clarity to what the bowler needed to execute.
“That is something he has been working on. Even MS had a long chat with him in one of the practice sessions, especially about getting his leg-break going. I think it was very helpful today, and the results were there to see,” Sriram said.
In the broader context of IPL 2026, Noor has taken four wickets across five matches, with three of those scalps coming in games versus Kolkata. Sriram also acknowledged that not every surface has given bowlers the same opportunity this season, and that the early phase of Noor’s wicketless run can partly be linked to how the wickets have played.
“Being able to get some deviation off the surface is very important, and that is what he has been working on. Everyone accepts that there will be days when wickets are flat, but still looking to be aggressive, putting revs on the ball and getting it to spin will help. That is how you induce mistakes,” Sriram explained.
Sriram further broke down Noor’s spell, highlighting how the first over shaped the rest of the innings. He said Noor initially looked either slightly too short or marginally too full, before finding the right length “in-between,” at which point the bowling became far more difficult to handle.
“In his first over, he was either a bit short or slightly too full. Once he found that in-between length, he became very difficult to play. Credit to Akeal as well because he pointed that out during the strategic timeout,” Sriram added.
For CSK, the most encouraging part is that the improvement looks repeatable rather than one-off. Sriram described Noor as a student of the game—someone who studies matchups, plans his spells, and prepares with intent—and on that basis, he expects the Afghanistan spinner to keep delivering as IPL 2026 moves forward.
“One of his strengths is that he gets late movement. His release is very good and the ball moves late. When he gets it right consistently, it becomes difficult for batters. He is a very good student of the game. He analyses batters, studies where to place his fielders and understands what speeds to bowl. He comes prepared,” Sriram said.
