We might have been a little bit slow to evolve with T20 game: Fleming

Once tagged as the IPL's "Dad's Army" for their unwavering faith in experience, five-time winners Chennai Super Kings may have taken their sharpest turn yet towards the future.

At the IPL 2026 player auction in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, CSK signed two uncapped youngsters - Prashant Veer (20) and Kartik Sharma (19) - for a joint-record INR 14.2 crore each, underlining a clear departure from the team's philosophy of trusting those that been there and done that, one that had defined the franchise for much of its 16-season history.

Head coach Stephen Fleming acknowledged that CSK may have been "a little bit slow" to keep pace with the rapid evolution of the T20 game. The change in thinking, he said, began midway through IPL 2025, when the arrival of Dewald Brevis and uncapped batters Ayush Mhatre and Urvil Patel as injury replacements injected fresh energy into a top order that had struggled to match the tempo set by other teams.

CSK finished last in 2025, but Fleming said the lessons from that campaign shaped their approach at this auction, where Veer and Kartik were secured for a combined INR 28.4 crore.

"As the game has evolved, we might have been a little bit slow to evolve with it," Fleming said after the auction. "Only halfway through the [last] tournament we had a big shift and you saw with the players we got in as reserves, there was a shift in what we needed to do. 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."

Mhatre, Urvil, Veer and Kartik, Fleming suggested, represent a generation that has grown up immersed in T20 cricket. He described them as "T20 babies", cricketers who play with freedom and without the hesitation that can sometimes accompany experience.

"I just wonder if we're now seeing the product of T20 coming to the fore," Fleming said. "We witnessed at the start of last year, and certainly the year before that my view used to be that experience was going to win, but now you have this fearless athlete that's been brought up on T20 cricket and has a skillset that's mouthwatering, and they just have no fear about what environment they need to exhibit these skills.

"So that is one thing to acknowledge, that T20 babies are now coming through. And it's just that mental aspect. Sometimes an experienced player can get caught up in himself, trying to work out where the game's going and what's going on. But these young players these days, they're just very free and they only know one way.

"So there's real appeal, especially when the game is being played faster and faster. I think it's a byproduct of T20 being around for some time now and we're all learning, being involved with it, and the faster it gets, these young players seem to play better."

CSK's pivot away from the past, in fact, had begun even before the auction, with the franchise trading long-time stalwart Ravindra Jadeja to Rajasthan Royals in exchange for India wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson. Fleming said the move was driven both by a desire to strengthen the top order and by the realities of planning for life beyond MS Dhoni, who is now 44.

"The opportunity was there," Fleming said. "We felt we were still a little bit light in our opening batting. And we were also looking at [the fact that] at some point MS will move on.

"Sanju is an international-quality player and he fills that role very well, so succession planning. And just opportunity really, just again looking at refreshing and seeing what Chennai will look like in six years' time, not two years' time. And just making sure that there's a succession [plan] around the players we are introducing."