Gareth Batty named Chennai Super Kings assistant coach under Zaheer Khan for IPL 2027
Gareth Batty will join Chennai Super Kings as an assistant coach for the 2027 Indian Premier League season, according to a report published on October 26, 2026. He is set to work on the CSK coaching staff under Zaheer Khan.
Batty is leaving Surrey after a 21-year association to take up the CSK role, having been head coach when Surrey secured three consecutive County Championship titles. He took charge of the county side in 2022, led them to the championship that season and presided over back-to-back defenses in 2023 and 2024, a run that made Surrey the first team in nearly 60 years to win the competition three times in a row; Surrey finished runners-up in 2025.
Born in Bradford, Yorkshire on October 13, 1977, Batty was a right-arm off-spinner whose professional playing career spanned 24 years and more than 700 matches. He began at Yorkshire, moved to Surrey from 1998 to 2001, later represented Worcestershire and returned to Surrey in 2009; across formats he took over 1,000 wickets and scored more than 10,000 runs.
At Surrey he took more than 500 wickets across formats and became the club's joint-highest wicket-taker in T20 cricket, and he captained the side between 2015 and 2017 before retiring at the end of the 2021 season and entering the club's coaching staff.
Internationally, Batty played 20 matches for England between 2002 and 2016: nine Tests, 10 One-Day Internationals and one T20 International. He made his Test debut against Bangladesh in Dhaka in October 2003, featured on England's tour of Sri Lanka where his batting contributed to saved Tests in Galle and Kandy, and was dropped after the 2004 West Indies tour that included the Antigua Test in which Brian Lara scored an unbeaten 400.
England recalled Batty for the 2016 tour of the subcontinent, where he played Tests against Bangladesh and India; his final Test came against India in Mohali in November 2016. In nine Tests he took 15 wickets with best innings figures of 3 for 55 and scored 149 runs with a highest of 38.
After moving into coaching, Batty was appointed Surrey head coach in 2022. Under his leadership Surrey reached the knockout stages of the Vitality Blast in each of his five seasons as head coach, including two appearances at Finals Day, and his work included helping Surrey players progress towards international cricket; Surrey director of cricket Alec Stewart praised Batty's commitment to the club, saying his success as head coach reflected his understanding of the players, hard work and determination to win.
Batty described the move to CSK as an opportunity for his family and thanked Surrey for its role in his career. "The new journey is a very exciting one for my family and I with CSK in the IPL and I'm looking forward to getting going," he said.
