The sports world always works in cycles. Teams that dominate for long periods will eventually go down before finding their way back up. This is where the Chennai Super Kings are located. After more than a decade of consistency, the party is now in a rebuild. The core that defined them had thinned and the shift from experience to youth was inevitable.
This shift was more evident last season. Chennai moved away from their trusted core and brought in a group of younger, largely uncapped players to reset the team. One of those players was Ayush Mhatre. Mhatre added the missing intent to the batting line-up in 2025 as CSK was desperate for a pattern for the new age of T20 batting. Mhatre has been one of the few things in CSK for fans to get their hopes up for this season. (Photo: PTI)
However, this season did not start the same way. Mhatre’s IPL 2026 campaign has been mixed. 73 against Punjab Kings briefly held the innings together it was falling apart, but he was dismissed for single-digit scores in the next two games. He also lost his opening slot, with Sanju Samson and Ruturaj Gaikwad moving up the order despite struggling for runs themselves.
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It’s not the easiest stage for a young batter to navigate. But maybe the fight isn’t too unfamiliar either.
In the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, which India won, Mhatre did not have a smooth tournament with the bat. The runs didn’t come for the big parts. He kept finding ways to contribute. He played more than expected, chipped in with off-spin and stayed involved as captain.
The runs came late. Two fifteenths in the semi-finals and the final. India won the World Cup and Mhatre returned as captain, joining a list that includes Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli, Unmukt Chand, Prithvi Shaw and Yash Dhull.
His upbringing shaped how he handles such phases.
“I am mentally strong. I used to travel from Virar to Churchgate (a 1:30 hour train journey one way). Sometimes I didn’t even get a seat. I had to stand there. I had to go to the ground and bat. Even after batting I didn’t get a seat. I had to get up and go,” Mhatre said on JioStar’s Dream On.
“It was mentally challenging. Sometimes you get bored, you don’t feel like going every day. But my goal was to play cricket. I had the motivation to go and bat.”
These routines were not unusual for the young Mumbai cricketer. But they leave a mark. Long commutes, little comfort, and the expectation to show up and perform every day.
It was in those years that his game began to take shape.
Mhatre first trained under Mumbai-based coach Prashant Shetty, who worked with him when he was a young boy trying to find his game. Later, when he moved on to school and age group cricket, Sachin Koli was instrumental in guiding him through his adolescence and into the higher competitions.
They both noticed something soon.
“I think the spark was definitely there,” says Shetty. “We don’t see the back foot shots that he normally had at that age, 9 or 10. I was convinced he was a good talent.”
That base remained with him even as he aged.
“His back foot shots were very strong from earlier,” says Koli. “At the higher levels, bowlers don’t bowl it much. If your back foot game is strong, you can survive. Seeing those shots, everyone felt he was going to go far.”
But as his father recalls, ability was only one part of him. It also mattered how he reacted to situations.
One such instance came in an under-14 match in Pune.
It was played on mat wickets, which Mhatre was not used to. At the start of his innings, he slipped slightly at the crease. A cover fielder made a remark about a Mumbai player who couldn’t even stand properly.
Mhatre did not answer. He stayed at the crease.
What followed was an innings that quickly slipped out of the opposition’s hands. He started taking on the bowlers and when the same player came to bowl, Mhatre hit him for six sixes in the over.
By the end of the innings, he had scored 256 runs off 94 balls, hitting 36 sixes and 15 boundaries.
There was a reaction. But there was also a correction.
After the game, his father talked to him about the innings, not to praise them, but to put it into context.
“You showed him that. But you can’t keep playing with anger. It could have gone the other way. Don’t keep it in your mind. Play your game.”
It was a small hit, but it stayed.
For his coaches, there were other moments that marked his progress.
“I think when he was selected in CSK,” says Shetty. “Playing under MS Dhoni, that was a big moment.
“And when he became India’s captain. When you lead a country, there is nothing bigger.” Mhatre is one of the lucky few to share the dressing room with Dhoni. (Photo: PTI)
There was also his early success in first-class cricket with Mumbai, where big scores in a strong dressing room made people take notice.
Right now though, Mhatre is going through a phase where the runs are not consistent. It is also a stage when roles change, opportunities are less fixed, and performances are more closely scrutinized. For a young player on a team that is developing itself, this uncertainty is part of the process.
What Chennai is going through is not just a slump in form. It’s a transition that always takes time. The players who defined the team for years are no longer at its center. In their place is a group that is still finding its footing, still adjusting to the demands of the league.
It’s not a phase that lends itself to quick fixes. Chennai has rarely worked this way.
The decisions over the past two seasons point to a longer plan that focuses on building a core that can last rather than plugging the gaps year after year. Short-term returns are uneven, but that hasn’t changed the approach.
Players like Ayush Mhatre are part of that mindset. His game passed through the maidans of Bombay and his temperament was shaped by traveling around the city daily to practice and play.
It is still early days on this journey. The returns are not consistent yet and the role is still settling. At the center of this phase is Stephen Fleming, who has overseen much of the franchise’s success and is now directing its next phase.
More importantly, expectations are not immediate results. The thing is, over time, this group will become the next one to take Chennai back up.
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– The end
Issued by:
Debodinna Chakraborty
Published on:
11 Apr 2026 11:51 IST
