India, Sept. 21 -- Zaheer Khan's appointment as Chennai Super Kings head coach for IPL 2027 is, on the surface, a decisive break with the past. He succeeds Stephen Fleming, who had occupied the role since 2009 and became almost inseparable from the franchise's identity. Yet beneath that change sits a striking threat of continuity: MS Dhoni was handed the responsibility for finding Fleming's successor, and Zaheer is a cricketer whose judgement Dhoni trusted long before today's coaching search brought them together again.

The trust was never expressed more emphatically than in Colombo in September 2012. Zaheer was enduring a difficult World T20; wickets had dried up, and questions were gathering around India's senior fast bowler. Dhoni cou...