18-year-old Ayush Mhatre has been named captain of the Mumbai team for the annual Buchi Babu tournament. Mhatre, who recently led India Under-19 on England tour, will be leading a 17-member side featuring the likes of Sarfaraz Khan, Musheer Khan. The tournament will be played from August 18 to September 9 in Chennai.
Mhatre has impressed many, whether it is first-class or List A cricket. He has two centuries each in the two formats. He proved his mettle as an injury replacement for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain Ruturaj Gaikwad in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. In his debut IPL season, he scored 240 runs from seven innings at an average of 34.28 and strike rate of 188.97. Mhatre scored 94 runs from 48 balls against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) but ended up on the losing side.
Mhatre was charged with the captaincy of India Under-19 team on England tour. He was unimpressive in the youth ODI games, scoring 27 runs from four games. He roared back to form in the red-ball format. In the unofficial Tests against England Under-19 team, he scored 330 runs from four innings, including two centuries and a half-century.
Under his captaincy, India U-19 won the youth ODI series 2-2 whereas the two youth Tests ended in a draw.
Mhatre will also be leading India U-19 team in multi-format tour of Australia which commences on September 11.
Mumbai squad for Buchi Babu tournament -
Ayush Mhatre (c), Musheer Khan, Divyansh Saxena, Sarfaraz Khan, Suved Parker (vc), Pragnesh Kanpillewar, Harsh Aghav, Sairaj Patil, Aakash Parkar, Aakash Anand (wk), Hardik Tamore (wk), Shreyas Gurav, Yash Dicholkar, Himanshu Singh, Roystan Dias, Sylvester Dsouza and Irfan Umair.
More squads announced -
A total of 16 teams will participate in the Buchi Babu tournament organised by Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA). Mumbai are in Group C alongside TNCA XI, Haryana and Bengal. TNCA President's XI and TNCA XI have named their squads as well. R Sai Kishore will lead TNCA President's XI, featuring the likes of Baba Indrajith, Vijay Shankar and Shahrukh Khan.
TNCA President's XI -
Sai Kishore (c), Andre Siddarth, Baba Indrajith, Vijay Shankar, Shahrukh Khan, Vimal Khumar, Radhakrishnan S, Lokeshwar S, Ajitesh G, Hemchudeshan J, Siddharth M, Ambrish RS, Achyuth CV, Trilok Nag H, Saravana Kumar P and Abhinav K
TNCA XI -
Pradosh Ranjan Paul (c), Boopathi Vaishna Kumar, Sachin B, Tushar Raheja, Kiran Karthikeyan, Mohamed Ali S, Rithik Easwaran S, Athish SR, Lakshay Jain S, Chandrasekar DT, Vidyuth P, Sonu Yadav, Deepesh D, Prem Kumar J, Esakkimuthu A and Lokesh Raj TD