New Delhi: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have decided to bring in Ayush Mhatre as a replacement for skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad, who has been ruled out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, owing to an elbow fracture.

The languishing franchise is struggling to find a proper combination this IPL, and they have now zeroed in on the 17-year-old Mumbai opener to change their fortunes.

According to Cricbuzz, the five-time champions, who sit at the bottom of the points table, took the decision late on Saturday. Mhatre has been asked to join the franchise immediately, but the earliest he can link up with the now MS Dhoni-captained team is only two days later.

It is understood that Mhatre, with a base price of Rs. 30 lakh, went unsold at the IPL 2025 mega-auction.

“He will join the squad in Mumbai in a couple of days,” Cricbuzz quoted a source close to CSK management. The CSK team is currently in Lucknow for their seventh fixture of the season, which will be played at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium on Monday. CSK currently hold just a singular win with two points, having gone down five games on the trot. They will face Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 20.

Why Mhatre?

A few months back, the franchise summoned Mhatre for trials along with a couple of other players-Urvil Patel of Gujarat and Salman Nizar of Uttar Pradesh. The nod came after the franchise gave deep thought to the three choices and finally zeroed in on Mhatre. Prithvi Shaw, who continues his IPL exile, was also in the reckoning, but the team is understood to have finalised the Mumbai batter.

In Mumbai’s cricketing circuit, teenager Mhatre is well-revered. He debuted in first-class cricket last October and has so far played nine games, amassing 504 runs, inclusive of two hundreds and a fifty.

He has also featured in List A games, and in seven of those, he has already scored 458 runs, with two centuries to his credit. Many pundits believe that Mhatre is an India material and shall be seen in the India Blues in the next few years.