Ayush Mhatre: Now boarding Virar fast

Ayush Mhatre was at an Under-19 camp in Vadodara in April when his phone buzzed. CSK, who had lost Ruturaj Gaikwad to a hand fracture, were on the line, asking Ayush to come and trial. After a quick coordination with the BCCI, the 17-year-old flew down to Chennai, more in hope than expectation.

Ayush had already trialed with Mumbai Indians before the mega-auction, but didn't earn a bid. This wasn't unexpected, given that he was yet to play any T20 cricket. So he did what CSK asked of him in Chennai and flew back to Vadodara without an immediate belief that he was about to earn an early ticket to the biggest league. But just days later, his phone buzzed again. CSK officially roped him in.

A week into his time as an IPL player, he was back in Mumbai. On the eve of the MI clash, Stephen Fleming delivered the news he'd been silently waiting for. He was going to debut. Sachin Koli, Ayush's coach from his senior school (IES VN Sule) and (Podar) college, was with him in the team hotel and reckoned it was time for some planning before the big day. "I asked him, 'So what do you want to do now, shall we discuss about tomorrow?' And he went: 'No sir, don't worry about it, let's go get something to eat," Koli tells Cricbuzz.

Ayush often wore confidence like a second skin. Next evening, the Wankhede stadium was buzzing in his ears, along with the advice of his coaches to see out the first 5-10 minutes and settle the nerves. But after the first ball, he went 4, 4, 6 and ended with a 15-ball 32. Three games later, he opened the batting and showed the full array of his capabilities in Bengaluru. His 48-ball 94 came in a loss, but Fleming was chuffed at what his team had stumbled upon.

"He's got talent. He's got hand-eye coordination. He's got a beautiful, silky swing. He's aggressive. Everything that we like about a modern-day T20 player. But, to me, it's the temperament and being able to execute in a trial and then on the big stage. That's what I'm most impressed with," Fleming had said.

The T-word has been attached to Ayush's persona at every stage of his progress. At a private U14 tournament in Pune, his father Yogesh saw how deep it ran. Ayush was already a Mumbai U14 player by then, and wore his official MCA trousers for the game. As he took guard and faced a delivery on a matting wicket, the type he'd never played on before, his foot slipped. The cover fielder took it as an opportunity to sledge Ayush. 'He's a Mumbai player, but he's not even able to stand,' came the chirp. Ayush let the comment slide, but launched successive sixes when that fielder came on to bowl. He ended up smashing a double-hundred in that game, and followed it with a couple more centuries in a row.

The Mhatre household has been very big on mahaul(vibe) and passion. Yogesh had a simple plan - let Ayush chase his early obsession, move heaven and earth to keep that spark alive, and then reassess around the time he got to sixth class in school. If the fire dims, focus could shift toward the safer, steadier path of academics. But before he steered Ayush towards life's more mundane churns, he wanted to give his son a proper shot at carving out his own niche.

"We have a regular routine in life - study well, get a job, find ways to feed ourselves. That was always our first option," Yogesh says. "We spent our lifetime with the intention of filling our stomachs, and there was no real chance of focusing on passion. But from the beginning, when he was born, I wanted to give him some passion. Whether that's sports or music. It could be anything. I wanted to give him a choice. And whatever he chooses I will follow."

Just after his fifth birthday, Ayush was already at a local club, learning the sport formally. A year later, even bigger avenues were sought - the famous Oval maidan in Churchgate. Every morning, Ayush and his father, Yogesh, left home at 5 o'clock. They took the crowded local train from Virar to Matunga, a 70-kilometre haul, so Ayush could train at Don Bosco school from 7 to 8:30 before classes began at 8:45.w

Yogesh would then retrace the entire journey and head to his job at a co-operative bank in Vasai, which was closer to home. During his lunch break, he'd rush home, eat, and take Ayush's maternal grandfather, Laxmikant Naik, to the railway station. Naik would then carry food to school, wait for classes to finish at 3pm, and then escort Ayush to the Vengsarkar Academy at the maidan. Ayush would train there from 4 to 6pm and then take the long route back home in a 6:30pm train.

"His motivation came from the kind of interest he had in the sport," Yogesh says. "He would leave home at 5am, come back at 8.30pm. Once I brought him back, I would freshen up, and eat... but Ayush would still not come inside.

"Outside our bungalow, we put up a hanging ball set up [for him to knock]. Before entering the house, he would spend another 30-45 minutes knocking the ball again. We'd have to pick him up and forcibly take him inside [laughs]. He didn't show any fatigue after such a day."

"We created a mahaul where he was going to enjoy. In times when he got out for zero, we would say: today we've made a 0, we just need to put a figure in front of it next time. And that's why he doesn't take failures too seriously. Even if he scores big, we didn't celebrate like it was Diwali. The way we're not silent when he gets a zero, we also don't make a big deal out of a big score."

There were also external nods of validation to this approach. Dilip Vengsarkar once pulled Yogesh aside to say how impressed he was with a six-year-old Ayush at his academy. But not long after, Ayush had to leave because his grandfather's health made the daily maidan commute impossible. It came to a point where cricket might have been discontinued. That's when Yogesh's brother stepped in, ferrying him to MIG Academy in Bandra and keeping the routine alive. Yogesh sent Prashant Shetty, the coach at MIG, videos of Ayush's batting before getting the nod to make the switch.

Once Ayush crossed sixth class and still couldn't be peeled off cricket, studies remained relegated to the background. A small, wiry kid obsessed with batting is peak Mumbai heritage, but it still comes with the risk of going only so far. Talent can be real and still get stuck in the overwhelming traffic of this city. But the solid cricket ecosystem in Mumbai filled Yogesh with hope. If you were good, the system had a way of letting people know.

"The way he batted as a 12-year-old that day... the way he stepped out and hit... I thought, what a talent," Sachin Koli recalls. As fate would have it, a few days later Yogesh approached Koli to take Ayush under his wing at IES VN Sule school in Dadar. Koli didn't need convincing. He'd already seen enough to say yes.

Ayush broke into Mumbai's age-group teams without missing a beat, sometimes even ahead of schedule. He was just 11 when he first played U14 cricket, and featured in the U19 side before playing U16. But as 10th class approached, Yogesh and his wife Jagruti, split the focus between them. He ensured nothing came in the way of cricket and she handled his academics.

Yogesh took a 15-month hiatus from work to travel with him on his club tours. It helped that his school (IES VN Sule) went out of the way to be accommodating, changing internal exam dates based on his availability. Ayush was out on a tour until February 12, 2022 with 10th-class state board exams starting from March 3. He returned, buckled down and emerged on the other side with 69% - a result his parents proudly accepted.

His next step was playing more intense and important matches as he enrolled at the Podar College of Economics and Commerce for 11th and 12th class, where he reunited with coach Koli. In the middle of 2023, Pradeep Kaslival, a former Mumbai pacer, reached out to Koli for a match.

Kaslival had just been appointed as the head of Mumbai Cricket Association's three satellite academies. The team Ayush was up against included top performers from all around Mumbai, and he still outclassed them. Koli sought out Kaslival for advice on his ward on the sidelines of another big performance, wondering if he should be playing cricket at a higher level soon. "This boy is ready now," were the words he got in response.

The next 12 months were spent trying to stay on the radar of the India U19 selectors. He travelled everywhere, scored runs, and leaned on the positive affirmations from Shetty and Koli. But he didn't make the cut for the U19 home series against Australia in September-October 2024. He had already done his bit for Mumbai U19, but couldn't cash in at the zonal tournament just before probables were named.

He moved on quickly, because MCA didn't give him the time to mope. They had been tracking his progress and stepped in with the first move that changed the course of what remained in the year. They sent him to Bengaluru for the Dr (Capt) K Thimmappiah Memorial tournament, where he got his first crack against a senior side. He made it count. He scored a fifty against Andhra in the first fixture and an eye-catching 173 against Gujarat a week later. From the sidelines, Sanjay Patil, only a few months into his role as Mumbai chief selector, saw enough. Ayush was fast-tracked into the Irani Trophy squad.

October snowballed with more highs. Ten days after that Irani cap, he was walking out for his Ranji Trophy debut. He showed promise instantly with a fifty against Baroda, albeit in an outright defeat away from home. He returned to Mumbai to hit a 232-ball 176 against Maharashtra. Twenty fours and four sixes in that knock grabbed attention - not least of the opposition captain Ruturaj Gaikwad. When the time came, Gaikwad turned CSK in Ayush's direction for a replacement player option.

Between then and the end of 2024, Ayush stayed relentless in making himself hard to overlook. The star-laden Syed Mushtaq Ali (SMAT) squad was still a bridge too far but he'd made enough meaningful strides by then to break into the India U19 set up for the Asia Cup in December.

A List A debut in the Vijay Hazare trophy followed before the year was up. On the last day of 2024, he smashed 181 off 117 against Nagaland, to become the youngest player (at 17 years and 168 days) to score a 150-plus score in men's List A cricket, beating Yashasvi Jaiswal's record (17 years and 291 days) that had been set in 2019.

Midway through 2025, just shy of his 18th birthday, Ayush captained the India U19 side on their tour of England, where he top-scored in the two Tests. He donned that role again in Australia in September-October - exactly 12 months after missing out on a spot for the reverse series.

"I had told him that whenever you're in the dressing room, don't just listen to the coach and captain, don't be a mute spectator," says Shetty. "You also think about what you can add. It was about grooming him. That was for the past three years. A lot of times we're so engrossed in skill development, that we don't groom captains. Whether he leads or not, that's a different question, but suddenly if it comes your way, you should be at least 30-40% ready."

Ayush has flown past milestone after milestone in a short time, yet he carries the same level-headedness Yogesh saw in that 14-year-old who answered a sledge with sixes. There's been plenty to write home about already - recently, he scored back-to-back hundreds in SMAT to become the youngest man to score a century in all three domestic formats - first-class, List A and T20 - at 18 years and 135 days. It beat the record held by Rohit Sharma (19 years and 339 days). Yet, none of this seems to have altered who he is. At home, Yogesh has kept his door open for all and any topics that his teenage son wants to bring to him.

"I don't think they [players] are prepared for it [too much limelight too soon]," Shetty says, having had a hand in shaping another Virar-based Mumbai prodigy, Prithvi Shaw. "I definitely get worried, but one thing that's best about Ayush is that he doesn't handle his social media. And I think he's very rooted to family values. I am pretty sure the money and adulation will not affect him. It has not affected him so far."

Ayush has gone from a mid-season replacement to a no-brainer retention for CSK in IPL 2026 - a year that looks stacked with more big moments. Yogesh recently filled out the form for Ayush's 12th class board exam that he has been deferring since early 2024. But once again, a trip to the exam hall will have to be postponed. He will instead be in Zimbabwe, occupied by his biggest project yet - captaining India at the U19 World Cup.

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