The veteran bowler, Ravichandran Ashwin, has given his total support to Sarfaraz Khan and has even asked the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to make the right-handed batsman a part of the IPL 2026 squad forever.

The support of Ashwin is grounded on the terrific performances of Sarfaraz in the local tournament. In the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT), Sarfaraz’s extraordinary contribution with the bat won his team over to a great extent he made 157 runs off 75 balls, including nine fours and 14 sixes. The innings was a perfect demonstration of the player’s power plus his talent of the taking the bowlers off guard in the middle overs.

Ashwin also emphasized that Sarfaraz performed excellently in the just-concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT), where he scored a total of 329 runs in 7 matches with a fantastic strike rate of 203.08 and an even better average of 65.80. Sharing his admiration on X, Ashwin wrote:

“100(47), 52(40), 64(25), 73(22) in the SMAT. That form’s transitioned seamlessly into the Hazare with scores of 55(49) followed by a blistering 157(75) today with 14 sixes. He murders spin in the middle overs with his sweeps and slog sweeps. He is not knocking on the door, he is breaking it open. CSK should slot him into the Playing XI this season. A genuine problem of plenty with the bat for the men in yellow! “IPL 2026 cannot come too early.”*

Chennai Super Kings after Sarfaraz Khan’s SMAT triumph laid hands on him in IPL 2026 auction for Rs 75 lakh, thereby, strengthening their team with a strong middle-order batsman.

Chennai Super Kings Squad for IPL 2026:
Ruturaj Gaikwad, MS Dhoni, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, Urvil Patel, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Jamie Overton, Mukesh Choudhary, Nathan Ellis, Noor Ahmad, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Gopal, Khaleel Ahmed, Sanju Samson, Akeal Hosein, Prashant Veer, Kartik Sharma, Matthew Short, Aman Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Matt Henry, Rahul Chahar, Zak Foulkes.