Ruturaj Gaikwad has been ruled out for the remainder of IPL 2025. In his place, MS Dhoni is set to captain Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
Now, CSK has signed Ayush Mhatre as the replacement player for Ruturaj Gaikwad. One of the most successful franchises in IPL has struggled to find the correct combination of players in this year’s IPL. They’ve decided to include the Mumbai opener as a replacement for Ruturaj.
It is understood that this decision has been taken late on Saturday (April 13). Ayush is asked to join the squad immediately. However, he will only be able to join the CSK dressing room a couple of days later. In the IPL auction 2025, he went unsold with a base price of INR 30 Lakh.
Chennai team is in Lucknow for the upcoming fixture against Lucknow SuperGiants at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium on Monday night. CSK has not fared well in this IPL 2025; they only have two points in the last six matches. After Lucknow, CSK will play Mumbai Indians in Mumbai on April 20.
The call-up for Ayush came after the franchise called Mhatre and others to Chennai for trials. He was one of the players along with Urvil Patel, of Gujarat, and Salman Nizar of Kerala. It was reported that Prithvi Shaw was also in the reckoning for the place but it didn’t materialize. Ultimately, CSK team management picked the 17-year-old Ayush Mhatre as the replacement.
Ayush is one of the emerging talents in the Mumbai circuit. He has played 9 first-class matches and scored 504 runs including two centuries and one half-century. He also has two hundred in List A games as well. So, he looks like a player that can be groomed to play for India in the future.
CSK always try to pick players that they groom in the future. It looks like they’ve invested in a bright young player from the Mumbai circuit who can play for them a long time.
