Mhatre's big night out: 'Not easy to be fearless on T20 debut,' says Pujara

Ayush Mhatre is the latest in the list of newcomers who have impressed on IPL debut.

Walking in at No. 3 for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday night in IPL 2025, 17-year-old Mhatre - also on his T20 debut, incidentally - scored 17 runs off the first four balls he faced, hitting two sixes and a four. But before getting here, Mhatre, who plays domestic cricket for Mumbai, had impressed MS Dhoni and Stephen Fleming during the trials with his skills and composure.

"We've had a few players through at our trainings and he was a player that stood out," Fleming said at the press conference after CSK's loss to MI. "It's still very hard when you're in a nets situation to get a true gauge of a player, but from a skillset [point of view], he was very impressive and a very composed young man, which is often just as important. So both MS and I were very impressed with the way he held himself together for the trial. And then when the opportunity came up, we've obviously got a view to the future, and he was the name that was pretty easy to pick."

Mhatre was unsold at the last IPL auction, but an injury to CSK's regular captain Ruturaj Gaikwad earned him a call-up as a replacement.

"It's probably the position we are in [CSK are bottom of the table] and with the injury to Rutu and the form of others made it quite an easy decision to get him in there," Fleming said. "The stage seems big but it's one that's familiar. We banked on him being comfortable with his surroundings [at Wankhede] and he certainly looked all that, so it was an impressive debut."

Mhatre's first boundary came off the second ball he faced, when he drove Ashwani Kumar's full-length delivery down the ground. His first six, off the next ball, was smashed over deep midwicket, and he followed that with a hoick over square leg. He went on to hit three more fours, all off Deepak Chahar, in his short stay before Chahar had him caught at long-on for a 15-ball 32.

"I think as a youngster, he batted really well," Dhoni said on the broadcast after the game. "And you know, that's the kind of approach that is needed where you play your shots but, at the same time, you pick the shots that are your strength. I feel right from the start he just wanted to play his shots. We also haven't seen him much, so it's a good sign for us. Top of the order, [if] you can keep playing the shots, it becomes slightly easy for the middle and the lower order."

Aaron Finch, who was wowed by Mhatre's "statement" innings, noted his strengths as a batter.

"I think the shot down the ground [off his second ball] was extraordinary," Finch said on ESPNcricinfo's TimeOut. "That was nowhere near a half-volley, but he smacked it on the up through mid-off, [and then] he set up for the pull shot. Obviously looks like a very leg-side-dominant player just [going by] the way that he sets up, everything says that he wants to hit square on the leg side. There'll be a few things for oppositions [to note] going forward but what a statement."

While Mhatre came in with no senior-level T20 experience, he has played nine first-class games and seven List A fixtures and has two centuries in each format. He made his domestic debut for Mumbai in the 2024-25 season, and scored his maiden first-class century in just his third game, in the Ranji Trophy. Mhatre also broke List A records when he scored 181 off 117 balls in the Vijay Hazare Trophy to become the youngest to hit 150 in a men's List A innings.

For Cheteshwar Pujara, what stood out was Mhatre's "fearless" approach despite not having played much top-flight cricket.

"If you are not well-prepared and you are nervous when playing your first game, you don't get that confidence," Pujara said on TimeOut. "But to do that - we say they are fearless but it's not easy to be fearless when you're playing your first-ever T20 game, that too at the highest level. To do that, I'm sure he's done enough preparation. I haven't seen his journey so far, I don't know much about it, but the way he batted he seemed very confident. He's played a lot of cricket in Mumbai and that's definitely helped him."

How are young batters these days this bold?

"Days are gone by [when] you walk into bat in your first game and you think, 'how can I get another game, how can I get myself into a position to get picked next game', and you get 30 off 25 and you go 'I've actually done a pretty good job for myself'," Finch said. "But these kids now [say], 'you know what will get me another game - hitting three or four sixes'. Then you become an Impact Player. And you can put it on reels and it can go viral. That's what the new generation is all about."

But while head coach Fleming is all about players expressing themselves, he hoped for balance in the way youngsters approach the game so that it's sustainable in the long term.

"I think there's examples all around the place where players are playing free. It's impressive, not always sustainable, but it's very impressive and it's contagious," Fleming said. "And what you're seeing is young players that are feeding off other performances. I think their expectation of how they should play is going up, or at least it has been based on what others are doing. It is creating quite a phenomenon.

"I'll still balance it with craft of the older players so that the mixture of having experience in these young players is probably the best mix, but certainly we're seeing a wave of young players in India that are just taking on the bowlers from ball one. Is it sustainable in tricky conditions, I don't know. There's the subtlety of the game, but in terms of what they're bringing and how they're playing their first games, it is certainly impressive."