Five-time champions Chennai Super Kings, who have lost two of their three games so far in IPL 2025, have called up 17-year-old Mumbai opener Ayush Mhatre for mid-season trials, according to a report in The Times of India. Mhatre, who went unsold in the IPL 2025 mega-auction in November in Jeddah, can come into the Chennai squad in case of any season-ending injury to a player. Mhatre travelled south from Rajkot, where he was at BCCI’s National Cricket Academy’s zonal camp for U-19 players. “Yes, we’ve called him for trials. He has impressed our talent scouts. No (injuries); if there is any need, we will do that. We are not picking anybody, it is just a trial,” Chennai managing director Kasi Viswanathan told The Times of India. The franchise had asked Mhatre to report for trials in November as well, just before the IPL 2025 mega-auction. Mhatre was last seen in action in February, during Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy semifinal encounter against Vidarbha in Nagpur, where he scored just nine and 18 runs in the two innings. Mhatre was Mumbai’s fourth-highest run-scorer in the Ranji Trophy, with 471 runs in eight matches with two hundreds to his name. Mhatre also scored a match-winning century against Saurashtra in a group game in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in January, finishing as Mumbai’s highest run-scorer in the tournament, with 458 runs in seven matches at a stunning average of 65.42. Mhatre has yet to make his T20 debut for either Mumbai or any franchise, but he has impressed Chennai’s top management and the talent scouts of the team. With one victory over arch-rivals Mumbai Indians and two losses in three games, Chennai are languishing at the seventh spot in the IPL 2025 points table. In December, Mhatre set a new world record for becoming the youngest player to score 150+ in men’s List A cricket during a VHT game against Nagaland, bettering Yashasvi Jaiswal’s effort. Mhatre did it at 17 years and 168 days, while Jaiswal had been 17 years and 291 days when he bagged the feat, playing for Mumbai as well against Jharkhand six years back.