18-year-old Ayush Mhatre a scapegoat? First retired out of IPL 2026 shocks all and sundry during CSK-DC showdown

The young batsman was playing well before he was called back to the dug-out. It should have been Sanju Samson instead, if truth be told.

Updated on: Apr 12, 2026, 06:16:35 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

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It's not something that happens often in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Ayush Mhatre was heartbroken for sure. (AP)

It was a shocking decision because Chennai Super Kings' Ayush Mhatre, one of the up-and-coming young batsmen in Indian cricket today, was really playing well.

Normally, a player is retired out when they are not able to score quick runs; that's why fans were left flabbergasted when Mhatre, on 59 off 36 balls, was called back to the dug-out in the 18th over with 15 balls still to go. It wasn't surprising that he was absolutely displeased with the team management's decision. He just walked straight back and needed no explanation from anyone. That could happen when one is really not happy.

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This was Mhatre's second fifty this season, and not long ago in the game, he had taken a seasoned bowler like Lungi Ngidi to the cleaners. A retire-out counts as a wicket, and Delhi Capitals would have been relieved to see the back of him without doing anything.

India all-rounder Shivam Dube came in next, but it's not that he did a lot of damage with the bat. In the last five overs, in fact, Chennai did very little, if truth be told. At the end of the 15th over, they were 160/1, and at the end of their innings, they were only 212/2. Just 52 runs and without losing any wickets, in a manner of speaking.

During this period, Sanju Samson, centurion of the innings, also couldn't do much. He played 13 balls, and all he scored was 25 runs. Dube, meanwhile, scored 20 off 10 balls, which was by no stretch of imagination out of the ordinary.

One has to say Mhatre was unfortunate to be retired out. It should have been Samson, if it had to be done. He looked really tired out there, and the younger Mhatre could have done some serious damage. One feels bad for him. One can't help thinking that because he was a budding cricketer, it was easier to remove him.

For the sixth time a player has been retired out!

The kind of batting we have seen from other teams like Punjab Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad and table-topping Rajasthan Royals in the last few hours… that being a blueprint, there is no denying that CSK could have done a lot better and Samson, being a senior player, should have put his hand up in terms of upping the ante. Sadly, he couldn’t, and young Mhatre had to make way for Dube.

This was the sixth occasion of retiring out in the IPL. R Ashwin, Atharva Taide, Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma and Devon Conway were the previous ones.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

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