Rising star Ayush Mhatre sets sights on playing for India at Lord's after recent visit: 'I can’t wait for the day'

Having toured the iconic Lord’s recently, Mumbai and Chennai Super Kings rising star Ayush Mhatre has set his sights on playing for his country at the ‘Home of Cricket’ down the road. Mhatre, who had a breakthrough season with CSK in the Indian Premier League earlier this year, is captaining the India U-19 team in their ongoing tour of England in which they have played five ODIs and one Test so far and will be flying back home after playing the second Test, which gets underway in Chelmsford from 20 July.

Mhatre and his teammates, including 14-year-old superstar Vaibhav Suryavanshi, had recently visited the ‘Home of Cricket’, where they happened to walk through the famous ‘Long Room’ and also savoured the view of the oldest cricket ground in the world from the balcony adjoining one of the dressing rooms.

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“After seeing all of this, I can’t wait for the day when I can come here to play and bat. I will never be able to forget this day. It will always be in my mind that I want to play at the Lord’s. I even watched the stadium only before on TV,” Mhatre said in a video posted by the BCCI on their website on Thursday.

Mhatre cherishes celebrating 18th birthday at Lord’s

What made his visit to the iconic venue, which used to be the global headquarters for the sport for more than a century, even more special was the fact that he also got to celebrate his 18th birthday here.

“It’s a very special day for me that my birthday is celebrated at Lord’s and my cake cutting was also done at the venue. There will never be a bigger moment in my life, but this biggest moment feels very special. I feel very motivated and feel like I wanna come here and bat anytime,” he added.

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India U-19 head coach and former batter Hrishikesh Kanitkar, for one, could relate to the excitement of his squad, having visitors Lord’s himself more than three decades ago – also during an U-19 tour.

“It’s a very big moment. One is the history of the Lord’s and second is there are so many great achievements here by our countrymen. It’s a great thing to know the legacy that a place has.

“We toured Lord’s in 1994 as under-19s as well. So, I could relate to it and what they are feeling. Boards in the dressing rooms where the achievements are written, the fifers and the hundreds and stuff – these things really inspire you,” Kanitkar said.

The Mhatre-led India U-19 team had won the 50-over leg of their tour 3-2, in which Suryavanshi finished as the leading run-scorer with 355 runs at an average and strike rate of 174.01. The first four-day Youth Test, on the other hand, ended in a draw despite the visitors collecting a 101-run first innings lead.