Ayush Mhatre to captain India at U-19 Asia Cup in Dubai

U-19 Asia Cup: Ayush Mhatre to captain India at U-19 Asia Cup in Dubai

Mumbai batter Ayush Mhatre will captain India Under-19 at the ACC Men’s Under-19 Asia Cup in Dubai, starting December 12. The BCCI has named a 15-member squad, which also includes attacking opener Vaibhav Suryavanshi. Vihaan Malhotra will be the vice-captain.

Mhatre has had mixed performances in recent months. He impressed in IPL 2025 for Chennai Super Kings, scoring 240 runs in seven matches at a strike rate of nearly 189 after replacing Ruturaj Gaikwad. But since then, his form has dipped.

On the England tour, he managed only 27 runs in four one-day games, though he bounced back in the Youth Tests, scoring 340 runs to finish as the top-scorer. In Australia, however, he struggled again, with just 10 runs in three one-day matches and 38 runs in the Youth Tests. Back home, across four first-class matches (including one for India A against South Africa A), he scored 156 runs at an average of 26. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he made 18 runs against Railways.

The Asia Cup will be played in the one-day format. India are placed in Group A alongside Pakistan and two qualifying teams. Group B features Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and another qualifier. India will begin their campaign on December 12 against one of the qualifiers.

India squad for Men's Under-19 Asia Cup

Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Ayush Mhatre (C), Vihaan Malhotra (VC), Abhigyan Kundu (wk), Vedant Trivedi, Harvansh Singh (wk), Kanishk Chouhan, Yuvraj Gohil, Khilan A. Patel, D. Deepesh, Henil Patel, Naman Pushpak, Kishan Kumar Singh, Udhav Mohan, Aaron George

Standby players: Hemchudeshan J, B.K. Kishore, Rahul Kumar, Aditya Rawat