Chennai Super Kings (CSK) star player Ayush Mhatre shared an interesting conversation he had with veteran Indian player Suryakumar Yadav before the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 season. However, Mhatre returned to competitive cricket after a gap of five months as he was recovering from a hamstring injury as well.

In a podcast with former cricketer Aakash Chopra, Mhatre said, “Surya bhai thinks of me as his little brother. I met him for the first time before the Ranji Trophy during practice games. He never let me feel like I was meeting for the first time. I asked him for his bat that time itself. He told me he would give it to me if I scored 200 in the next match. I got out at 180. I asked him for the bat. He told me the talk was for 200. Then he said okay score a hundred in the Ranji Trophy. Then I scored it against Maharashtra and he was also playing that game. Then he gave me the bat. I took 3-4 more bats from him.”

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However, Ayush Mhatre also commented on the CSK trials and how Suryakumar Yadav informed him that he would get a call from the franchise as well. It was Suryakumar Yadav who gave Mhatre’s number to the CSK scouts and asked him to be mentally prepared as well.

“I was at an U-19 camp in Rajkot. Surya bhai called me and told that he had given my number to the CSK scout and that I might get a call. He told me to be ready mentally as I would be called for IPL trials. I was excited. Then Anirudh Srikkanth sir called me, saying they wanted to see me in the nets. But I was in the camp, so I told him they would have to take permission from BCCI. They did that and then called me for the trials. I was given scenarios and I batted well there,” he cocnluded.