Just when you thought IPL 2026 had run out of ways to surprise you, Chennai Super Kings' Ayush Mhatre walked out to bat at number three and somehow managed to trigger one of the most chaotic and unintentionally hilarious sequences the tournament has ever produced, and a ball had not even been bowled at him yet.
IPL 2026: What actually happened with Ayush Mhatre's bat at Chepauk during CSK vs PBKS game
Ayush Mhatre came in to bat after the fall of Sanju Samson's wicket and the standard bat gauge check took place at the crease as it always does. Except this time it did not go smoothly. His bat failed to pass through the gauge, which meant he had to send for a replacement.
A substitute ran on with a second bat. That one did not pass through the gauge either. Then a third bat was brought out. Same result. By this point Mhatre was visibly flustered, standing at the crease looking thoroughly confused while the Chepauk crowd tried to make sense of what was happening.
And then came the moment that made everyone watching lose their minds, the umpire looked at the gauge, turned it around, and suddenly Mhatre's original bat passed through it without any problem at all. The gauge had been upside down the entire time.
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CSK vs PBKS, IPL 2026: Umpire uses bat gauge upside down
The umpire had been measuring Mhatre's bat with the gauge inverted from the very first attempt, which naturally meant nothing was going to pass through it correctly.
Bats were getting rejected, a substitute ran in twice, a young batter was left standing at the crease flustered and confused in the middle of a big IPL match, all because the gauge was the wrong way up. Once the correct orientation was applied, the original bat passed through immediately.
Mhatre batted on with the same bat he had walked out with in the first place. The whole extraordinary sequence achieved absolutely nothing except providing the most talked about moment of the day and leaving everyone in the ground and watching at home completely bewildered.
In a tournament that has already given us so many incidents in history, IPL 2026 is clearly determined to keep things interesting in ways nobody could have predicted.
