Mumbai batter Ayush Mhatre will be leading India Under-19 at the ACC Men's Under-19 Asia Cup in Dubai from December 12. The BCCI announced a 15-member squad for the tournament, with the side also including aggressive opener Vaibhav Suryavanshi. Vihaan Malhotra will be Mhatre's deputy at the competition.
Mhatre, meanwhile, hasn't been in good form recently. He had impressed for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2025, where he was called up to replace Ruturaj Gaikwad, with 240 runs in seven matches at a strike rate of nearly 189. But since then, he has been inconsistent with his returns.
Mhatre got just 27 runs in four one-day matches on the England tour, but hit back to be the top-scorer with 340 runs in the two Youth Tests. In Australia after that, he got just 10 runs in three one-day games, and 38 runs in the Youth Tests against Australia Under-19. In four first-class matches during India's domestic season, which included a game for India A against South Africa A. Mhatre has managed only 156 runs at an average of 26. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy fixture that followed, he scored 18 against Railways.
At the ACC Men's Under-19 Asia Cup, which will be played in the one-day format, India are in Group A with Pakistanand two qualifying teams while Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and another qualifier are in Group B. India open their campaign December 12 against one of the two qualifiers.
India squad for Men's Under-19 Asia Cup
Ayush Mhatre (capt), Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Vihaan Malhotra (vice-capt), Vedant Trivedi, Abhigyan Kundu (wk), Harvansh Singh (wk), Yuvraj Gohil, Kanishk Chouhan, Khilan A. Patel, Naman Pushpak, D. Deepesh, Henil Patel, Kishan Kumar Singh*, Udhav Mohan, Aaron George
*Subject to fitness clearance
Standby players: Rahul Kumar, Hemchudeshan J, B.K. Kishore, Aditya Rawat