4 min readUpdated: May 9, 2026 07:51 PM IST
When Noor Ahmad runs in to bowl during CSK’s net sessions at Chepauk, MS Dhoni steps out of the dressing room. He walks to the back of the nets, stands there, watches. A word here and there — the same quiet presence he maintains in the middle of matches, standing up to the stumps, making small adjustments with his hands. For Noor, it has been a constant these past weeks. It has also been necessary.
Noor arrived in Chennai not in the best of form. He had gone nearly three months without a wicket. The problem had a name — the same problem that had surfaced in 2021, when an arm injury forced him to rely excessively on his googly because bowling leg-breaks caused pain. Five years on, the injury was gone but the habit had stayed. Over-exposure to T20 cricket through a year of globe-trotting had done the same damage more slowly. The googly had become the stock delivery. And when the googly is your stock delivery, you stop attacking the stumps. You offer width. Batsmen find the arc and swing through it.
Noor Ahmed in action. (AP Photo)
In Noor’s first three IPL matches, that is exactly what happened. Wicketless, expensive, searching. It was Dhoni and bowling coach Sridharan Sriram who began the repair. “MS had a long chat with him in one of the practice sessions, getting his leg-break to go. I think it was very helpful for him,” Sriram said. But a chat was not going to be enough. The leg-break had to become a muscle memory again. The run-up had to be sorted. The revs on the ball had to come back.
Sriram describes what changed. “His rhythm is pretty good. He’s sorted his run-up yards. He’s more consistent with his run-up speeds. He’s putting more revs on the ball and he’s bowling more percentage of leg-spins. He has made some minor adjustments and that’s something working for him really well. And he’s attacking the stumps a lot more.”
Watch the run-up and the adjustments become visible. Noor starts his approach at a diagonal, so that by the time he reaches the crease his hip has already rotated into the delivery — not just the shoulders doing the work, but the hips too, which is where wrist-spinners find their revs. The leg-break is turning more than it was. The ball is asking questions it wasn’t asking in those first three matches.
Since picking up his first wicket of the season against Delhi Capitals in CSK’s second home fixture, Noor has taken nine wickets in six matches. Chennai have won four of those. In the middle overs, his four-over spells have been the choke — against Mumbai Indians and Delhi in the last match, he squeezed both innings to the point where recovery became impossible.
Noor Ahmad in action. (FILE photo)
He is now back in the top ten wicket-takers in the tournament, alongside his compatriot Allah Ghazanfar and his idol Rashid Khan — the bowler whose action Noor has spent years mirroring, left-hand version. Like Rashid, he is quick through the air, altering his pace subtly enough that variations become difficult to decode until the ball has already left the hand. “”Whenever I have questions, or want to chat, or need to share with someone, Rashid is the first person for me to go to,” Noor has said in the past. “I try not to think too much about bowling, but whenever I have something that I must share, I share with him.” Paired with Akeal Hosein — a contrasting spinner, slower through the air — the two give CSK something different in each hand.
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CSK need to win at least three of their four remaining fixtures to make the playoffs. The surfaces are tiring, scoring rates are dipping, conditions are shifting. On Sunday at Chepauk, under covers after unseasonal rain, they face Lucknow Super Giants. The pitch will do something. Dhoni will stand behind the nets one more time before the game. Noor will run in at a diagonal, hips rotating, leg-break loaded. He knows what to do with it now.
