Regular India opener, Shikhar Dhawan, has failed to recover from an injury he suffered in the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy while playing for Delhi, and Mayank Agarwal has been named in his stead in the squad for the upcoming ODI series against the West Indies.
Dhawan, who had also been named in the ongoing T20I series against the Windies, had been replaced by wicket-keeper batsman, Sanju Samson but the latter has not got a game as yet. Agarwal will be hoping the same fate does not befall him.
Read | Is Mayank Agarwal the big match ODI player India are searching for?
Agarwal has established himself as India’s premier opener in Test matches in the past year. After an impressive debut showing at the mighty MCG against the Australians, he was retained for all subsequent Test series.
He missed two potential chances to reach three figures during the debut series in Australia but did not let go of the chances in the home series against South Africa and Bangladesh.
The Karnataka opener converted his first three-digit score to a maiden double-century against the Proteas, following it up with another century in the second Test. He also played a scintillating knock of 243 against Bangladesh in the next series, equalling multiple records in that particular innings.
However, Agarwal is no slouch in white-ball cricket. He has scored 3869 runs in 79 List A innings, at an average of 50.9 with his highest score being 176. He recently played for Karnataka in both the Vijay Hazare trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy when he was not playing for India, and won both titles with the team.
And that is 2/2 for 2019. Super proud to be a part of this team! pic.twitter.com/QlSPI9Hde5
— Mayank Agarwal (@mayankcricket) December 1, 2019
Agarwal’s 69* in the Vijay Hazare final against Tamil Nadu helped Karnataka chase down their target easily and while he got out on a duck in the Syed Mushtaq Ali final, he played a crucial hand in the semi-finals.
In the meantime, he also scored a century for India C in the Deodhar Trophy against India A last month. He is in a rich vein of form and will be hoping to also be a regular part of the Indian team in limited-overs cricket.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Prakash Singh
