Akeal Hosein

- After representing the other Super Kings franchises in the MLC and SA20, Akeal Hosein was picked by CSK for IPL 2026.

- Before IPL 2026, he had played just one game in the league, for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

A left-arm fingerspinner known for his relentless accuracy, Hosein is thrifty while also retaining the ability to take wickets - which makes him a valuable T20 asset, especially in the powerplay. He played a vital role in Trinbago Knight Riders' CPL win in 2020, taking ten wickets at an economy of 5.5 from seven matches. A few months later, at 27, he got his break in international cricket when several senior West Indies players opted out of a tour of Bangladesh due to Covid-19 concerns. Hosein took three wickets on ODI debut.

He started the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE as a net bowler but was drafted into the main squad as an injury replacement. At the 2024 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean, he took nine wickets at an economy of 5.6. Earlier that the year he had been part of MI Emirates' winning side in the ILT20, taking 12 wickets in ten matches.

Hosein possesses a knuckleball as well as a swinging arm ball, but he tends to rely on subtle variations in speed and length to trick batters. He is also a handy lower-order batter and memorably hit 44 not out off 16 balls from No. 11 in a T20I West Indies lost by a run to England in Bridgetown in January 2022. A few months later in an ODI in Multan, he smashed 60 off 37 balls (with six sixes) from No. 7.

Hosein represented West Indies Under-19 in the 2012 World Cup and less than a year later made his first-class debut for Trinidad, taking 11 wickets in his third match and scoring an unbeaten century in the next. But then the opportunities dried up - before his 22nd birthday, he had played 13 first-class matches; in the next five years he would play only two. The tide turned after a strong 2019-20 first-class season in which he was T&T's highest wicket-taker, with 36 at an average of 20.6, although nearly all his success came in limited-overs cricket thereafter.