Kolkata : Australian pacer Spencer Johnson has replaced his country mate Nathan Ellis in Chennai Super Kings (CSK) squad for IPL 2026.
However, Johnson is also recovering from a back injury that made him miss the BBL, which will allow him to join the CSK only around April 21-23, the franchise said in an X post.
Johnson had signed with Quetta Gladiators for PSL 2026, but pulled out of the tournament citing personal reasons.
Although full IPL 2026 schedule is not announced, Johnson’s late arrival will make him miss atleast first 4 matches against Rajasthan Royals, Punjab Kings, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Delhi Capitals.
Incidentally, Johnson’s last competitive game was in the last IPL, when he was representing Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), where he suffered back pain and later a stress fracture.
CSK retained Ellis for INR 2 Crores in this season despite him playing only 1 game in last edition.
Johnson will join CSK for INR 1.5 crore , with Ellis ruled out of the tournament after he aggravated an old hamstring injury in the domestic One-Day Cup final on March 11. Johnson, 30, has represented Australia in five ODIs and eight T20Is, and has overall played 71 T20s.
Spencer Johnson injury update – By Coach Ryan Harris
Johnson’s domestic coach at South Australia, former Australia quick Ryan Harris, gave an update on his stress fracture injury on Wednesday in Australia.
“He got some good news, I think four or five days ago, about his back,” Harris said. “Finally, the crack in his back has healed. He’s had quite a frustrating 8-10 months. So the good news is he’s back bowling. He’s building up again.
“IPL, I think there might be an opportunity. We’re still waiting to see what happens there. He’s obviously got to do a fair bit of bowling before he goes back into competitive cricket. So we’re working on that as we speak.
“But it’d be good to see Spence back playing cricket. He’s obviously had some bad luck over the last two years.”
Harris said he had been working with Johnson on making some adjustments in his bowling action to prevent further back issues, but he revealed Johnson is only bowling at just over half-speed at the moment.
“We’ve been doing that ever since he’s been able to roll his arm over,” Harris said. “We’ve been just tweaking a couple of things. And he’s doing really well. He had a bowl the day before yesterday. I wasn’t there, but I did some video stuff. And we’ve been really conscious of what he’s trying to achieve and straighten him up a little bit and try and take a little bit of pressure off that back”.
“But he’s done it really well. He feels like, although he’s only going about 60%, the ball’s coming out nicely. So as we speak, he’s bowling more. He’s trying to crank it up. And it’s just now about getting bowling load into his body to be able to allow him to go and play.”
Spencer Johnson’s brief IPL history
Johnson has represented Gujarat Titans and Kolkata Knight Riders before in IPL in 2024 and 2025 respectively and has taken 5 wickets. He made his debut for GT in 2024 against Mumbai Indians picking 2/25 , helping his team win the game by 6 runs. In 2025 he had a season to forget playing for KKR. In 2026 , he was unsold.
How the pace lineup looks for CSK?
Including Johnson, CSK’s overseas fast-bowling contingent now includes Matt Henry, Jamie Overton and Zak Foulkes, and the Indians in the mix are Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh and Mukesh Choudhary, apart from allrounders Shivam Dube and Aman Khan as the pace-bowling options.
CSK will start their campaign in March 30 against 2008 champion Rajasthan Royals.
