Mumbai: “When you’re failing repeatedly, it’s important to pause and reflect: ‘What did I do well when I was succeeding?’” For India U-19 captain Ayush Mhatre, things weren’t going smoothly, until he shrugged off his poor form with back-to-back centuries (102 & 32 in the first Youth Test at Beckenham, followed by 80 & 126 off 80 balls at Chelmsford) against England U-19.In the five-match Youth ODI series preceding the Tests, the 18-year-old reached double figures only once, with a sequence of 21, 0, 5 & 1. To make matters worse, he had to miss the final game of the series due to fever.Coming off an impressive IPL debut—206 runs in six matches for MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Mhatre struggled to adjust to English conditions. Unlike the flat IPL tracks where batters can swing freely, the seaming pitches in England demand patience and technique. It was clear that the teen was grappling with the transition.In contrast, his 14-year-old opening partner Vaibhav Suryavanshi lived up to the buzz surrounding him. The southpaw smashed a 31-ball 86, followed by a 52-ball hundred (143 off 78 balls) in the fourth Youth ODI at Worcester.Leading a team while struggling with form can be doubly challenging, especially for a teenager. But timely advice from his childhood coach, Prashant Shetty, helped Mhatre turn things around.“He was being too hard on himself. He was looking to carry his IPL form into this this tour, which doesn’t always happen. Before going into the test, I asked him to watch the videos of his centuries in the Ranji Trophy last season. He had hit a fine hundred against Services at the Palam Ground on a seaming track in Delhi (116 off 149 balls out of Mumbai’s first innings total of 288. Mumbai won by nine wickets and Mhatre was named as the ‘Player of the Match’), so it wasn’t like he couldn’t bat on the seaming tracks, or he had any technical issue. As I said, it’s just that he was trying too hard,” Shetty told TOI. Since his first-class debut in October last year, Mhatre has scored 504 runs in nine matches, including two centuries and a fifty. In seven List A games, he already has 458 runs with two tons.
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What do you think was the key to Ayush Mhatre’s turnaround in form?
“He and Suryavanshi are the only ones with first-class experience in the side. That certainly helps. Perhaps, he needed a change in format. The fact that he has done well in the red-ball format before gave him the confidence that he can bounce back and do well. He told me that he was in better rhythm while batting in the pre-match nets at Beckenham,” Shetty said.Shetty also dismissed the idea that captaincy pressure affected Mhatre’s batting. “I asked him directly, and he said he felt no pressure from the role. At the junior level, most decisions are taken by the coach. I had also advised him to separate his captaincy from his batting.”When Mhatre was appointed captain for the England tour, Mumbai head coach Omkar Salvi had told this paper: “Ayush is a lovely kid who’s got a very calm head on his shoulders. Being around him in the dressing room gave me the feeling that he is someone who can definitely be a leader. He’s very confident of himself and also a self-assured team man and that’s going to keep this India Under-19 team in good stead. I wish him all the best and I’m sure he has many more leadership roles that beckons him in the near future.“Following his return from England, Mhatre’s next assignment will be the Duleep Trophy in September, which will mark the start of the 2025-26 domestic season. This time, the tournament will be played on a zonal basis.
