The world of sports always works in cycles. Teams that dominate for long stretches eventually fall down, before finding their way back again. This is where Chennai Super Kings find themselves. After more than a decade of continuity, the team is now in a state of rebuilding. The core elements that define them have weakened and a shift from experience to youth has become inevitable.

Last season, that change became apparent. Chennai moved away from its trusted core and brought in a group of young, largely uncapped players to rebuild the team. One of those players was Ayush Mhatre. Mhatre adds missing intent to batting line-up in 2025 CSK was desperately looking for this formula For new age T20 batting.

However, this season has not started the same way. Mhatre’s IPL The 2026 campaign has been mixed. Took control of the innings for some time after playing an innings of 73 runs against Punjab Kings. He was on a tear, but in the other two games he got out for single-digit scores. He has also lost his starting spot, with Sanju Samson and Ruturaj Gaikwad moving up the order despite struggling for runs themselves.

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This is not the easiest phase for a young batsman. But perhaps that struggle is not too unfamiliar.

In the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, which India won, Mhatre did not have an easy tournament with the bat. Runs were not coming in large parts. He still found ways to contribute. He bowled more than expected, contributed off-spin and remained involved as captain.

Runs came late. Two half-centuries in the semi-finals and final. India won the World Cup and Mhatre returned as captain, joining a list that includes Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli, Unmukt Chand, Prithvi Shaw and Yash Dhull.

His upbringing has shaped how he handles such phases.

“I am mentally strong. I used to go from Virar to Churchgate (a 1:30 hour train journey one way). Sometimes I wouldn’t even get a seat. I had to stand there. I had to go on the field and bat. Even after batting, I didn’t get a seat. I had to stand and go,” Mhatre said on Geostar’s Dream On.

“It was mentally tough. Sometimes you feel bored, you feel like you are not going every day. But my goal was to play cricket. I had the motivation to go out and bat.”

This routine was not unusual for a young cricketer in Mumbai. But they do leave a mark. Long journeys, little rest, and the expectation to show up and perform every day.

It was during those years that his game began to take shape.

Mhatre first trained under Mumbai-based coach Prashant Shetty, who worked with him when he was a young boy trying to find his game. Later, when he moved on to school and age-group cricket, Sachin Kohli was instrumental in guiding him through his teenage years and to higher levels of competition.

Both of them soon noticed something.

“I think there was definitely a spark,” Shetty says. “The backfoot shot he had, normally at that age, 9 or 10, we don’t see that. I was sure he was a good talent.”

That foundation remained with him as he grew up.

“His backfoot shots were a lot stronger than before,” says Collie. “At the higher level, bowlers don’t throw it too much. If you have a strong backfoot game, you can survive. Looking at those shots, everyone thought he would go very far.”

But as his father recalls, ability was only part of it. The way he reacted to situations also matters equally.

One such example was seen in the Under-14 match in Pune.

It was played on a mat wicket, which Mhatre was not used to. He slipped a little at the crease at the beginning of his innings. On the cover, a fielder commented about a Mumbai player who was not even able to stand properly.

Mhatre did not give any answer. He remained at the crease.

After this there was an innings which soon went out of the hands of the opposition team. He started facing the bowlers and when the same player came to bowl, Mhatre hit six sixes in one over.

By the end of the innings, he had scored 256 runs in 94 balls with 36 sixes and 15 fours.

There was a reaction. But there was also an improvement.

After the game, his father talked to him about the inning, not to praise it, but to put it in context.

“You showed him. But you can’t carry on playing with anger. It could have gone the other way too. Don’t let it linger in your mind. Play your game.”

It was a small intervention, but it stuck.

For his coaches, there were other moments that marked his progress.

“I think when he got selected in CSK,” says Shetty, “Playing under MS Dhoni, that was a big moment.

“And when he became the captain of India. When you are leading the country, there is nothing bigger than that.”

He also had early success in first-class cricket with Mumbai, where big scores caught the attention of a strong dressing room.

However, right now Mhatre is going through a phase where runs are not being scored consistently. This is also a stage where roles are changing, opportunities are not fixed and performance is being intensely scrutinized. For a young player on a team that is itself developing, that uncertainty is part of the process.

What Chennai is going through is not just a decline in form. This is a change that was always going to take time. The players who defined the team for years are no longer at its core. In their place is a group that is still finding its footing while adjusting to the demands of the league.

This is not a phase that leads to quick fixes. Chennai has rarely worked like this.

The decisions over the past two seasons point to a longer term plan, where the focus is on building a core that can last rather than bridging gaps year after year. Returns have been uneven in the short term, but that doesn’t change the outlook.

Players like Ayush Mhatre are part of that thinking. His game comes from the plains of Mumbai, and his temperament has been shaped by the daily toil of traveling across the city to train and play.

He’s still early in that journey. The returns haven’t been consistent yet, and the role is still settling in. At the center of this phase is Stephen Fleming, who has overseen much of the franchise’s success and now guides its next phase.

More importantly, the expectation is not the immediate result. It is such that this group, over time, becomes the next group that takes Chennai back to the top.

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