Mayank Agarwal

Mayank Agarwal, born on February 16, 1991, is a right-handed opening batsman for India. He has been a regular member of the Indian test team over the last couple of years and has also played a few One Day Internationals.

Mayank plays for Karnataka in the domestic circuit and has done so for his entire ten-year career. In the IPL, He started with Royal Challengers Bangalore for 3 years between 2011-2013 before representing the Delhi Daredevils for the next 3 years between 2014-2016. He then played for the Rising Pune Supergiants in 2017 before being picked up by the Kings eleven Punjab in 2018. He has since been an integral part of the side and continues to do so.

Mayank completed his schooling at Bishop Cotton Boys School, Bengaluru, and his college education from Jain University, Bengaluru. His favorite cricketers are Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar and his hobbies are listening to music, traveling, and watching football.

Mayank Agarwal was the leading run-scorer for India in the 2010 Under 19 World cup and also holds the record for the highest score by an Indian on debut in Australia. He is also the second-fastest batsman to score two double centuries in Test cricket in just 12 innings.

Mayank Agarwal is seen as one of the bright lights of the next generation of Young Indian players set to take Indian cricket forward in all formats of the game.

Family

Mayank was born in Mangalore to Anurag Agarwal and Suchitra Singh. His father is the CEO of the healthcare company Natural Remedies. He also has an elder brother Raj Kishan who was a former State-level cricketer.

Mayank is a meditation practitioner upon the influence of his father and has also been inspired by the Joseph Murphy book “The Power of the Subconscious Mind”.

Mayank got engaged to his childhood friend, Aashita Sood in January 2018 and the couple got married on June 6th, 2018.

Early age cricket and Under 19 Cricket World cup

Mayank Agarwal had been a prolific and consistent opening batsman since his Under 13 days at Bishop Cotton Boys School and Jain University where he was teammates with KL Rahul and Karun Nair. He was inspired by Virender Sehwag and took a similarly aggressive approach to bat.

Agarwal first made a significant mark in the Under 19 Coach Behar Trophy in 2008-09 compiling 432 runs at an average of 54 across 5 matches. He followed that up with a match-winning 160 for India Under 19’s against Australia Under 19’s at Hobart in 2009. This led to his selection in the India Under 19 team for the 2010 Under 19 World cup.

Although India had a forgettable tournament losing to Pakistan in the Quarterfinals, Agarwal was their leading scorer in the tournament and gave the India fans hope about a potential upcoming player in the future.

His Domestic career had a proper kick-off in the T20 format when he was the Man of the series of the Karnataka Premier league in 2010. This led to him earning an IPL contract in 2011 for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. He totaled nearly 500 runs across 35 innings in his 3 seasons with RCB and was fairly silent in the two seasons with Delhi

While Mayank made his Ranji Trophy debut for Karnataka in the 2013-2014 season, he made his List A debut in 2011-2012. However, both his IPL career and Domestic career were marred by inconsistencies and fitness issues till midway through the 2014-15 season. Though he would show glimpses of his caliber especially in White ball cricket, frustrations grew over his throwing away of starts and the inability to convert them into bigger scores.

This happened to be his wake-up call as he worked hard on his fitness and mental fortitude to have the right desire and hunger to deliver big scores consistently.

In November 2017 he made his first triple century in the Ranji Trophy 2017-18 season against Maharashtra and ended up being the leading scorer for the tournament with 1,160 runs. His breakthrough domestic season did not go unnoticed as he was bought by the Kings Eleven Punjab in the 2018 IPL auction.

Mayank continued his prolific first-class season by leading the scoring charts in the 2017-2018 Vijay Hazare Trophy with 732 runs in 8 matches. By scoring a total of 2,141 runs in the domestic season across formats, he broke the record for most runs by a batsman in a domestic season.

Mayank continued his magnificent form by leading the runs chart for Karnataka again in the 2018-2019 Vijay Hazare Trophy scoring 251 runs in 7 matches. He was subsequently selected to the India B’s squad for the 2018-19 Deodhar Trophy. He scored his maiden IPL century in the 2020 IPL season against the Rajasthan Royals, making 105 off just 50 balls.

Debut in Indian Cricket Team

Mayank Agarwal was selected to the Indian test squad for the series against West Indies in September 2018 on the back of his exploits since 2017 on the domestic circuit. However, he did not make it to the playing eleven in that series. He finally made his test debut for India in the 3rd test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy at the MCG on December 26, 2018, replacing the injured Prithvi Shaw.

He scored a crucial 76 in his very first innings for India and followed it up with another solid 42 in the second innings displaying impeccable technique and composure for a debutant. Facing the likes of Starc, Hazelwood, and Cummins with grit and determination, he helped India take a 2-1 series lead by seeing off the new ball threat and laying the platform for the middle order to cash in.

He followed that up with another highly impressive 77 in the final test match at the SCG as India won their first-ever series in Australia 2-1. He also became the highest scorer by an Indian on debut in Australia in the process. Following this magnificent debut series, he stormed into the limelight as a long-term prospect for India as a test opener.

He later followed this fairytale start with 2 double centuries against South Africa and Bangladesh in 2019 to cement his place in the Indian test side as their first-choice opener.

Mayank was part of the Indian ODI World cup Squad from midway through the tournament as a replacement once Vijay Shankar was ruled out due to injury, however, he did not play in any of the matches. He was subsequently named to the ODI squads for the series against the West Indies and in New Zealand. He finally made his ODI debut in New Zealand in early 2020 but did not make much of an impact as India lost the series 0-3 to the Black Caps.

He was also part of all the squads touring Australia in late 2020 but did not play any part in the ODI’s and T20’s through the tour. However, a strong showing in the IPL over the last 2 seasons has lent itself to Mayank making his T20I debut for India very soon.

Breakthrough Inning

Mayank Agarwal had got off to the perfect start in his test career with his performances in the final two tests in Australia. However, to cement his place in the strong Indian test team as the long-term opener, his next step was converting it into a big century. That is exactly what he did in the first test against South Africa in 2019.

India won the toss and batted on a true batting surface and Mayank, in partnership with Rohit Sharma, flayed a strong South African attack to all corners of the ground en route to a staggering 317 run opening partnership. Mayank registered his maiden test century and went on to convert into a double century as well as he ended up with a stunning 215 of 371 balls. His wonderful footwork particularly against spin was the major highlight in a knock full of tenacity, endurance, class, and grit.

He followed it up with another century in the second test as well as India dominated the series 3-0 and Mayank Agarwal with Rohit Sharma looked a very possible long-term opening partnership for India in test cricket. The inning in the first test was a breakthrough in Mayank’s India career as it displayed his great hunger when he ensured to convert a start into a big double century, which is the hallmark of a great batsman.

Future in Cricket

Mayank Agarwal had a dream start to his Test career till his last two series in New Zealand and Australia where he struggled against the moving ball. He also hasn’t had the best of starts to his white-ball career for India.

However, being looked at as a potential great Opening batsman of Indian cricket in the future, Mayank will be looking to go back to scoring heavy runs in first-class cricket to return to the Indian setup.

Having shown enough in terms of pedigree and performance in his first year in test cricket on different pitches and difficult circumstances, Agarwal is surely only a century or two away in First-class cricket and IPL from regaining his confidence and getting back into the Indian team in all formats. He still holds a very impressive average of 46 in test cricket.

He has already begun his resurgence with an astonishing 99* in the final match of IPL 2021 before it was called off. With such hunger and commitment to succeed, Agarwal is almost certain to achieve great heights in the future for Team India.