When a 13-year-old Ayush Mhatre reminded Mumbai chief selector Sanjay Patil of Ajinkya Rahane

While the world had a glimpse of Ayush Mhatre's precious talent last Sunday in IPL-2025, when he smashed a dazzling 15-ball 32, which included four sixes and two fours against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, there's someone who was convinced about the 17-year-old Virar boy's tremendous potential the moment he saw him in action for the first time-two years back in a Kanga League match.
In a conversation with Mirror, Mumbai chief selector Sanjay Patil, a former left-arm spinner, shared an interesting tale about how he was left mightily impressed by what he saw first of Mhatre, Mumbai and CSK's latest sensation. Watching a 15-year-old Ayush score a half-century, Patil was reminded of Mumbai captain Ajinkya Rahane scoring a half-century as a 13-year-old for his club.

"Credit to current MCA president Ajinkya Naik. A couple of years back when he was the MCA secretary, he kept insisting to me: 'Sir, please come to watch this boy (Ayush Mhatre) play at Mahim Juvenile. I was watching a Kanga League match at Shivaji Park. When I went there, I saw a 15-year-old Ayush score 77 and almost take his team, Sainath Sports Club, to a win. I was reminded of a 13-year-old Ajinkya Rahane, who scored 30 for my Sind Sports Club & didn't look back. Technique can be worked upon. But he has talent. I told our then chief selector Raju Kulkarni about it. Sadly, we couldn't pick him in that (2023-24) season as we had most of our India players and we won the Ranji Trophy. However, last season we immediately gave him a debut, right from the pre-season tournaments," Patil said.
"My biggest regret is that I dropped him from the Jammu & Kashmir match at BKC last season, as we had all our India players available (Mumbai lost that match by five wickets). That affected his confidence, since he had scored two hundreds already that Ranji Trophy season and didn’t expect to be dropped, and he failed in a few matches subsequently. It was a criminal mistake." he added.
Showering praise on Mhatre, Patil said, "His improvisation and timing were superb. He has tremendous talent.
The best thing about him is that his temperament is very good. Technique can be improved upon by speaking to the greats of the game, he's only 17, but temperament is what sets him apart, and I look for that in a player as a selector. This was his IPL debut, but he had no nerves. He doesn’t take stress, and I saw that during his debut at the Irani Cup also last year. He needs to improve his conversation rate, but I can understand since it was just his first match. He will only get better with great players like Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav around to guide him. I saw how quickly he learnt a few things from Rahane and Shreyas Iyer during the Ranji Trophy."
"I think he definitely has the potential to go and play for India," he added.
After he scored 176 against Maharashtra at BKC in the Ranji Trophy, Mhatre was signed up by SG, who sponsored his cricketing kit and provided him with bats. If he keeps smashing the ball like that, expect more such deals to come the Virar lad's way.