New Delhi: Ayush Mhatre is likely to join the Chennai Super Kings camp for the remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL). It has been reliably learnt by TimesofIndia.com that the 17-year-old opener will link up with the squad ahead of CSK‘s fixture against Mumbai Indians on April 20.
As reported by TOI on April 3, Mhatre had been called up by the franchise for mid-season trials in Chepauk. He had gone unsold during the mega auction in Jeddah last year.
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But with Ruturaj Gaikwad ruled out for the remainder of the season, Mhatre has thrown his candidature in the ring for the five-time champions.
Gaikwad was ruled out of the rest of the IPL season with an elbow injury with MS Dhoni taking over the captaincy duties. CSK have had a disastrous season with one win from six matches and are sitting bottom of the points table.
The injury to Gaikwad was confirmed by CSK head coach Stephen Fleming on the eve of their eventual loss to Kolkata Knight Riders. The 28-year-old picked up the injury during CSK’s match against Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati on March 30. He was struck on his elbow when charging to a Tushar Deshpande delivery, but continued batting and scored 63 in that game.
Gaikwad played two more matches after that, scoring 5 and 1 against Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings, respectively.
With the regular CSK captain out of contention, the Chennai management have seemingly shifted focus towards Mhatre as an injury replacement.
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Mhatre had earlier joined the CSK camp in Chennai from Rajkot, where he was part of BCCI’s National Cricket Academy’s zonal camp for Under-19 cricketers.
“Yes, we’ve called him for trials. He has impressed our talent scouts,” CSK MD & CEO Kasi Viswanathan had told TOI.
The youngster had a fine debut season for Mumbai in 2024-25, scoring 458 runs in seven matches @ 65.42, with two hundreds and one fifty in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, and 471 runs in eight matches @ 33.64 with two centuries and one fifty, with top score of 176 against Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy.
Get the latest IPL 2025 updates on Times of India, including match schedules, team squads, points table and IPL live score for CSK, MI, RCB, KKR, SRH, LSG, DC, GT, PBKS, and RR. Don’t miss the list of players in the race for IPL Orange Cap and IPL Purple cap.
