World Cup has not proved good for captain Ayush MhatreImage Credit source: Johan Rynners-ICC/ICC via Getty Images
The performance of the Indian team in the Under-19 World Cup 2026 remained consistently strong. Before the Super-6 round against Pakistan, the Indian team seemed to be doing wonders against every opponent. Most of the players of the team contributed significantly to the team’s victory at different times. During this time, while all the attention was on players like Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Vihaan Malhotra, team captain Ayush Mhatre was not discussed much. But in terms of performance on the field, the Indian captain failed miserably and did not even score 100 runs in 5 matches.
The bat did not work against Pakistan
On Sunday 1st February, India and Pakistan clashed in the Super-6 round of the World Cup. In this match, the Indian team batted first and once again Vaibhav Suryavanshi gave a fast start. But while Vaibhav could not convert this innings into a big score, the captain Mhatre who came after him increased the problems of the team. Actually, after Vaibhav was out in the 8th over, Ayush Mhatre came to the crease but returned to the pavilion within 2 balls in the same over. Ayush could not even open his account in this match against Pakistan.
Not even 100 runs in the entire tournament so far
In this way his string of failures continued in the tournament. This was the second time in 5 matches of this tournament, when he was out on a single digit score. But in the remaining 3 innings of the series, he could touch the 50 mark only once. In the match against New Zealand, the Indian captain had scored a quick 53 runs. Overall, in 5 innings of the Under-19 World Cup, he could score only 99 runs at a modest average of 19.8, which included only one half-century.
Better performance by the rest of the batsmen
This failure of Ayush is disturbing because he has been performing like this since last year. Even in the Asia Cup Under-19, he could not do anything special, while before that his bat did not work in some series also. In comparison, the performance of other batsmen in the World Cup was better than his. In the top and middle order, Abhigyan Kundu scored the highest score for India with 199 runs, while Vaibhav scored 196 runs, while vice-captain Vihaan Malhotra also scored 172 runs.