Indian skipper Rohit Sharma bonded and practiced with youngsters Ayush Mhatre and Indian Test batter Sarfaraz Khan on Tuesday.
Both Ayush and Sarfaraz took to their Instagram accounts, sharing stories of their interactions with the 'Hitman'.
Rohit gifted Ayush a bat, while Sarfaraz was seen observing and chatting with Rohit in the nets.
Mhatre thanked Rohit for the bat, captioning the story, "Not just a gift, but an inspiration. Thanks @rohitsharma45 Da."
India U19 recently played a five-match ODI series and a two-match Test series against England from June to July. India secured the ODI series by 3-2, and the Test series ended in a draw.
Mhatre, who rose to prominence with a solid season for five-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) this year in the Indian Premier League (IPL), led the Indian team in both formats. Although his ODI outing was poor with just 28 runs in five innings, he went ballistic during the Test leg of the tour, topping the red-ball charts with 340 runs in four innings at an average of 85.00 and a strike rate of over 103, with two centuries and a fifty.
In the first Test, he had made 102 and 32. Both matches ended in a draw, with Team India settling for a draw in the second Test, ending the proceedings at 290/6 while chasing down 355 runs.
Mhatre blasted 126 in 80 balls during the second Test while chasing, with 13 fours and six sixes. His century in 64 balls is the third-fastest in U19 Test cricket, behind Moeen Ali (56 balls) and Vaibhav Suryavanshi (58 balls).
For CSK this year, Mhatre was one of the few positives in a wooden-spoon finish season, scoring 240 runs in seven matches at an average of 34.28 and at a strike rate of 188.97, with a half-century and best score of 94. With his youth and hard-hitting approach, he was a breath of fresh air in an inconsistent, ageing batting line-up.
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