Pujara on Ayush Mhatre - "Not easy to be fearless on T20 debut"

The most recent addition to the list of newcomers who have impressed on their IPL debut is Ayush Mhatre. 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. Mhatre, who plays domestic cricket for Mumbai, had, prior to arriving here, impressed MS Dhoni and Stephen Fleming with his skills and composure during the trials. Fleming said at the press conference following CSK's loss to MI, "We've had a few players through at our trainings, and he was a player that stood out." "From a skillset perspective, he was very impressive and a very composed young man, which is often just as important. It's still very hard when you're in a nets situation to get a true gauge of a player." Therefore, the manner in which he maintained his composure throughout the trial impressed both MS and I greatly. We obviously have a view toward the future, and he was the name that was pretty easy to choose when the opportunity presented itself." 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. In his brief stay, he hit three more fours off Deepak Chahar before Chahar caught him at long-on for a 15-ball 32. Dhoni said on the game's broadcast, "I think as a youngster, he batted really well." "And you know, that's the kind of approach that needs to be taken in which you play your shots but also choose the shots that you can hit well. From the start, I get the impression that all he wanted to do was hit shots. It's also a good sign for us that we haven't seen him much. If you are able to keep playing shots, the top of the order becomes slightly easier, while the middle and lower orders become slightly easier."