Gareth Batty has revealed that Chennai Super Kings' county cricket-like culture helped convince him to leave Surrey after a 21-year association with the club. The incoming CSK assistant coach will work under Zaheer Khan for the 2027 IPL season.File photo of Gareth Batty. (Reuters Photo) New Chennai Super Kings assistant coach Gareth Batty has explained what drew him to the Indian Premier League team.

Speaking to TalkSport, the outgoing Surrey coach said it was the franchise's county cricket-like culture that attracted him to the assignment.Batty will join CSK for the 2027 IPL season after spending 21 years associated with Surrey, where he most recently served as head coach. He led the club to three consecutive County Championship titles between 2022 and 2024, making him one of the most successful coaches in English domestic cricket in recent years.The 48-year-old said CSK's traditions and continuity, particularly head coach Stephen Fleming's long association with the franchise, played a role in his decision to move to India."Seeing how it all closed out, it's an exciting time for a club, or a franchise, that holds traditions like a county club, or clubs that we find outside franchise cricket.

With Fleming being there for so long, and so on and so forth, my head was turned a little bit," Batty said. However, the decision to leave Surrey was not an easy one for the Englishman, who admitted that he had to think carefully before accepting the offer."Even now, it doesn't feel fully real that I'm leaving somewhere where I've spent half my life.

But having thought about it and talked it through, particularly with my family, the opportunity was just too great to turn down," he added.ZAHEER KHAN'S CALL Batty revealed that the opportunity to join CSK came after Zaheer Khan was appointed head coach of the franchise. The former India fast bowler contacted Batty to ask about his plans before offering him a place on the coaching staff."It was out of the blue.

Zaheer Khan had been appointed head coach of CSK, and around the time he was appointed, he gave me a call and said, 'Look, what are you up to?'" Batty said.The Englishman initially told Zaheer that he was occupied with his responsibilities at Surrey. However, the prospect of joining CSK and working in the IPL eventually convinced him to take up the challenge.Batty will work as an assistant coach under Zaheer, but he said the role would involve more than his responsibilities on the field.

He is also looking forward to contributing to the development of the franchise as it enters a new phase."It's an assistant coach role, so obviously working under Zak. But it's more than that, I suppose," he said.Batty added that the scale of the IPL and the opportunity to help shape CSK's future were among the aspects that excited him about the move."It's kind of a new beginning for CSK, with lots of things fractionally evolving there.

The enormity of what's in front of me, I don't fully know all the bits. That's the exciting part," he said.WAS BATTY SUCCESSFUL AT SURREY?Batty took charge of Surrey in 2022 after retiring from professional cricket at the end of the previous season.

He guided the club to the County Championship title in his first year and helped them retain it in 2023 and 2024.Surrey finished runners-up in 2025, bringing an end to a run of three successive titles under Batty. His departure marks the end of a long association with the club, where he played for several years before moving into coaching.A former England international, Batty represented his country in nine Tests, 10 ODIs and one T20 International.

His final Test appearance came against India in Mohali in November 2016.Batty said the prospect of taking on a new challenge at this stage of his career was a major factor in accepting the CSK role."I think, potentially, at this point in my life, it just feels like the challenge and the unknown are the exciting bits," he said."When it all starts, you don't know what it's going to be, and it's the journey that excites me about being part of something that can mean a huge amount to billions of people in a country that is cricket-mad."- Ends