A day after Rajasthan Royals’ 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi made a dream debut, Chennai Super Kings handed 17-year-old Ayush Mhatre his debut cap against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, making him the youngest debutant for the five-time champions. The Mumbai-born batter took down MI’s pacer Ashwani Kumar for 18 runs in a single over.
CSK, playing without regular captain Ruturaj Gaikwad due to an elbow injury, handed the cap to Mhatre after his stellar performance in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he scored 458 runs at an average of 65.42. He arrived at the crease with CSK needing to stabilize the innings after losing Rachin Ravindra early.
After a single off his first delivery, Mhatre tore into Ashwani’s over. He began with a straight hit of mid-off for his first IPL boundary. Following it with a flick over deep midwicket for six. Later, he pulled a short ball over square leg for another six.
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In the following overs, he took on Deepak Chahar. Mhatre smacked him for three boundaries. However, in the seventh over, Chahar had his revenge. He bowled a short ball that bounced awkwardly on Mhatre, who went for the pull but couldn’t control it. The ball was safely caught by Mitchell Santner at long-on.
Mhatre walked back to a standing ovation with his 32 runs coming off just 15 balls, featuring four boundaries and two sixes, at a strike rate of 213.33. He also received a pat on his back from Suryakumar Yadav on his way back to the pavilion. By nine overs, the CSK scorecard read 66/2 with Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja at the crease.
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