IPL 2026 - How CSK Anshul Kamboj has become a force at the death

He has become one of the IPL's most effective death-over specialists through tactical clarity, around-the-wicket angles and relentless yorker training

Deivarayan Muthu

Published: May 9, 2026, 1:57 PM (4 hrs ago)

"Anshul Kamboj had an off day and is already upset about it and is eager to come back."

This was Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain Ruturaj Gaikwad mere minutes after the game against Delhi Capitals (DC) ended. Kamboj had conceded 49 runs in his four overs without taking a wicket on the day.

Kamboj has repeatedly shut down right-hand batters with the around-the-wicket angle in IPL 2026, but on Tuesday, Ashutosh Sharma showed the way to counter the seamer by jumping across off, crouching low, and meeting the ball on the full. Can Kamboj now counter the counter?

He is at the top of the Purple Cap table, level with Bhuvneshwar Kumar on 17 wickets. Ten of those have come between overs 15 and 20 - nobody has more wickets than Kamboj during this phase. Kamboj, who is only into his third IPL season, has fronted up to perform a difficult job that seasoned bowlers such as Bhuvneshwar, Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer do in the league.

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While most of the attention is on MS Dhoni whenever CSK play or practice, Kamboj attracted a star-studded posse in pre-season. Almost all of the team's support staff, including head coach Stephen Fleming, bowling coach Eric Simons and assistant bowling coach S Sriram huddled up and marvelled at Kamboj nailing one wide yorker after another from around the wicket.

Kamboj had started his career as a swing bowler for Haryana in helpful conditions and even in T20 cricket for his state, he was predominantly a new-ball bowler. In IPL 2025, CSK used him as a new-ball bowler as well: a whopping 126 of his 129 balls came in the powerplay, according to ESPNcricinfo's logs.

Prior to IPL 2026, Kamboj had bowled just six balls from around the wicket in the league. In this season alone, he has delivered 75 balls from that angle of attack, all of that between overs 15 and 20, emerging as the face of this new trend against right-hand batters. Nobody expected this kind of a transformation. Or this level of execution. Kamboj is one of the reasons CSK, who were perceived to have a weak bowling attack, have come away with the second-best economy rate in IPL 2026 (9.02).

"We've spoken a lot as a bowling unit around what I call the chaos of batting at the moment," Simons said at a press conference in Delhi. "One of things we decided to go away was over-emphasis on a lot of different tactics to make sure the bowlers walk into the ground with absolute clarity in their mind around what they wanted to do and safety to do that. So, if we bowl a good delivery that gets hit for six, it's still a good delivery and might still be the right ball to bowl next."

Simons also suggested that 'Project Kamboj' began last season at the CSK nets and then took shape during the most recent domestic season. In the 2025-26 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Kamboj did the top-tail role and picked up 21 wickets in his side's run to the final. Only Jharkhand's Sushant Mishra (22) and Rajasthan's Ashok Sharma (22) had taken more wickets than Kamboj.

"Anshul what you see today is not this season...it started last year," Simons said. "The things that we worked on, he went to the domestic season and worked on different angles and approach to the crease and be more accurate with his yorkers in particular.

"We've introduced around the wicket, which is no secret now. He has picked up wickets and been able to restrict the run-rate as well, but what it really boils down to is his professionalism and the way he trains and the way he understands. In the modern game, a bowler needs to be clear with what he wants to do and he's very clear with his tactics and field setting."

Back in the day, CSK had one of the greatest death bowlers in the world wearing No.47 on his yellow jersey and making batters look silly with his dipping yorkers. They now have an up-and-coming bowler wearing No.47 and doing the heavy-lifting for an inexperienced attack in the death overs.

Stats as of May 9, 2026 before RR vs GT

Deivarayan Muthu is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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