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Ayush Mhatre, one of the most promising young batsmen of Indian domestic cricket, has suffered a huge setback in the very first match of the Ranji Trophy 2026-27 season. Mumbai’s newly appointed vice-captain Ayush Mhatre has suffered a serious grade 4 tear in the hamstring of his right leg. The 19-year-old star batsman has been completely ruled out of competitive cricket for the next four to six weeks due to this new and painful injury. The most shocking thing is that Mhatre had recently returned to the field after completing a three-month long and intensive rehabilitation program at the state-of-the-art Center of Excellence (CoE) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Bengaluru. With such a serious injury so soon after his return, BCCI’s scientific process of fitness monitoring, workload management and sanctioning has once again come under intense scrutiny from cricket experts and fans.
This series of injuries with Ayush Mhatre is not new, but has been going on since a few months. Playing for five-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) during the Indian Premier League 2026, he suffered a hamstring strain in his left leg while batting against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 18. Due to that injury, Mhatre had to sit out the entire remaining IPL 2026 season. After this, he was sent directly to the National Cricket Academy i.e. the new Center of Excellence in Bengaluru for recovery and strength training, where he spent about 90 days to attain match fitness. However, this time the injury was not to his already injured left leg, but to the hamstring of his right leg, which is a straight grade 4 fatal tear. Medical experts believe that the recovery from a Grade 4 tear is quite complex and the player’s return will depend entirely on how his body responds to the ongoing treatment and physiotherapy.
The unfortunate incident occurred during the first Ranji Trophy Elite Group D match played against Chandigarh at the Wankhede Stadium. Mhatre had to leave the field after suffering pain while fielding and Suved Parkar took over as a substitute. Mumbai Cricket Association, just before the current domestic season, in view of Ayush Mhatre’s exceptional batting talent and intelligence, appointed him as the vice-captain of the team, so that he can handle more responsibility at the top of the order. Now his sudden absence has pushed Mumbai’s batting strategy on the backfoot. Mumbai will have to take the field without its main batsman in the important Ranji matches for the coming several weeks, which has created a new challenge for the selectors and the team management regarding the top-order combination.
Amidst the disappointment of Mhatre’s injury, the Mumbai team dominated on the field in its very first Ranji match, defeating Chandigarh by a huge margin of an innings and 155 runs. After winning the toss and batting first, Mumbai team scored a huge score of 429 runs in its first innings. The foundation of this strong innings was laid by experienced Siddhesh Lad by scoring 86 runs and Musheer Khan by scoring 65 runs. At the same time, in the lower order, the brilliant contribution of Tanush Kotian’s 58 runs and Mohit Awasthi’s unbeaten 56 runs put the team in a very strong position. In response, Chandigarh’s first innings fell apart like a deck of cards in front of Mumbai’s tight bowling and the entire team was reduced to just 78 runs, due to which Mumbai got a huge lead of 351 runs and Chandigarh was forced to play follow-on.
After getting the follow-on, even in the second innings, Chandigarh’s batsmen could not stand against the disciplined bowling of Mumbai and the entire team collapsed after scoring only 196 runs in the second innings. Mumbai spinners finished the game on the third day of the match. Left arm spinner Shams Mulani took three valuable wickets for 69 runs, while Tanush Kotian, who scored a half-century with the bat, also did wonders with the ball, giving away just 30 runs to three batsmen. On the basis of this one-sided performance, Mumbai won the match in just three days and along with registering their first resounding win of the season, also took the entire bonus points.