While Team India was busy fighting it out against Australia in the first Test in Nagpur on Thursday (February 9), Mayank Agarwal once again reminded everyone about his capabilities with the bat.
The out-of-favour India opener scored a stunning double century against Saurashtra in the ongoing Ranji Trophy semifinal. The opening batsman and Karnataka finished the day on 110 runs and 229 for 5 respectively after Saurashtra won the toss and elected to field first.
Karnataka were off to a poor start as Ravikumar Samarth and Devdutt Padikkal departed cheaply to leave their team reeling at 21 for 2. The likes of Nikin Jose, Manish Pandey and Shreyas Gopal could not do much with the bat either as Karnataka lost 5 wickets for just 112 runs.
Mayank Agarwal and Srinivas Sharath then steadied the ship and put on a 139-run stand to lay the foundation for a good total. Chetan Sakariya broke the stand when he trapped Sharath in front of the stumps for 66. Once Sharath departed, Karnataka kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
Mayank Agarwal’s stunning knock:
Mayank Agarwal, however, remained firm at his end and did the bulk of the scoring to guide his team to a big total of 407. He was the last Karnataka wicket to fall when he was run out for 249.
Prior to the dismissal, Agarwal scored more than 60 percent of Karnataka’s runs and helped them score a good total. His knock came off 429 balls and was studded with 28 fours and 6 sixes.
The double century is his second in the ongoing Ranji Trophy with the first one coming against Kerala. The right-handed batsman is enjoying a prolific season and would be hoping to earn a recall from Team India soon.
Not very long ago, he was an integral part of India’s Test team but has fallen down the pecking order now. His last Test appearance came in March last year when Sri Lanka visited India.