Ayush Mhatre roped in as Ruturaj replacement for Chennai Super Kings for the remainder of the 2025 IPL season.
Ayush Mhatre has been drafted in as a replacement for injured CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Ayush Mhatre has been identified by the Chennai Super Kings as their preferred replacement. The youthful Mumbai opener will replace captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, who has been sidelined for the season due to an elbow fracture, as the underperforming team struggles to find a suitable combination this IPL.
The decision was made late on Saturday, April 13, by the five-time champions, who are currently at the bottom of the points standings. Although he has been requested to join the team right away, he won’t be able to join the MS Dhoni-led team until a few days later. Mhatre was unsold at the auction, despite having a base price of Rs 30 lakh.
The seventh game for the CSK team is now in Lucknow and will take place on Monday night at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium. CSK has lost five straight games and now has one victory and two points. On April 20, they take on the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede in Mumbai.
The CSK nod followed the team’s invitation to send Mhatre to Chennai for tryouts, along with two other players, Salman Nizar of Kerala and Urvil Patel of Gujarat. Prithvi Shaw, who is currently unpopular with IPL teams, was also considered, but it is believed that the squad chose Mhatre to replace Gaikwad.
The cricket community in Mumbai holds the 17-year-old Mhatre in the highest respect. He has scored 504 runs in nine first-class games, including two hundreds and a fifty. He has already amassed 458 runs in seven List A games, including two hundreds. He made his first-class cricket debut in October of last year, and many Mumbai-based analysts think he is a potential India player.