Mayank Agarwal Becomes Highest-Scoring Indian Test Debutant in Aus

Who is Mayank Agarwal, the cricketer making his international debut in the Boxing Day Test?

Mayank Agarwal holds up his India cap before making his international debut at the Boxing Day Test against Australia.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

Mayank Agarwal, Indian Test cap number 295.

Karnataka batsman Mayank Agarwal has made his international debut in the Boxing Day Test against Australia in Melbourne, marking the occasion with a half century.

That he would play this game was known yesterday, when India announced their playing XI.

That he would even be in Australia today, was not known till nine days back when Mayank and Hardik Pandya were called in as replacement for injuries in the Indian squad Down Under.

Last-minute entry as he might be, Mayank made the most of his opportunity by scoring a solid 76 and setting the base for Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara to post 215/2 on Day 1.

His 76 though was enough for Mayank to break a 71-year-old record of the highest score by an Indian on Test debut in Australia. The record was earlier held by Dattu Phadkar who made a 51 in Sydney in 1947.

But Who is Mayank Agarwal?

A 27-year-old Karnataka batsman, Mayank has forged his way into the Indian dressing room based on the sheer volume of runs he’s scored in the last year.

He was the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy’s highest run-scorer with 1160 runs in 8 games that included a stretch of four matches in which he scored 4 centuries and also an unbeaten 304 against Maharashtra.

Mayank then followed it up with a massive 723 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy that helped him create the record for the most runs in a domestic season (2253) across formats.

Mayank’s 723 also broke Sachin Tendulkar’s 15-year-old record for the most runs in a List-A series by an Indian batsman. Sachin had scored 673 runs in 11 matches during the 2003 ICC World Cup and Mayank amassed his 723 in just 8 Vijay Hazare games.

A regular feature in the India A squad now, Mayank has scored 3915 runs playing first-class, List A and T20 cricket.

Not The First India Call-Up

Stupendous numbers in domestic cricket last season however did not guarantee Agarwal a debut cap when India picked a second-string side to play the T20 tri-series in Sri Lanka in March or the one-off Test against Afghanistan at home.

He did get a call-up when India looked for replacements after Murali Vijay faltered during the tour of England, but Mayank only watched from the sidelines as KL Rahul got a shot at the top of the order with Shikhar Dhawan.

Agarwal was then named in the squad for the Test series against the Windies at home, but again, was relegated to just being part of the dressing room as another promising youngster, Prithvi Shaw, made his international debut.

Keeping the pressure up, Mayank continued to pile on the runs but when the squad for the Australia Tests was announced over two months back, it seemed like the dream was again to be put on hold. Virat Kohli were going to show faith in Murali Vijay, KL Rahul and Prithvi Shaw at the top of the order.

However, an ankle injury during a practise game saw Shaw ruled out of the series and with Rahul and Vijay scoring just 95 runs between them in eight innings of the first two tests in Adelaide and Perth, Mayank got the call he was waiting for.

This time though, it wasn't to warm the bench, but a direct spot in the playing XI.

India’s Sixth Test Debutant in 2018

On the eve of the Boxing Day Test, India announced their playing XI and confirmed that Mayank Agarwal would become the sixth Test debutant for the team in 2018. Test cap number 295.

Kohli made two more changes for the third Test with Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja also coming in for KL Rahul, Murali Vijay and Umesh Yadav. Offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin was ruled out for the second successive match because of an abdominal strain.

Wearing his new India cap, Mayank became the fifth Indian cricketer to debut at the ground after K Rai Singh, Probir Sen, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and KL Rahul.

With Hanuma Vihari for company, Mayank stitched together a 40-run stand for the first wicket, in 18.5 overs. This was India’s longest opening stand in terms of balls faced in Test cricket across Australia, New Zealand, England and South Africa since December 2010.

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir had batted out 29.3 overs against the Proteas at Centurion in that year.

The combination of Agarwal and Vihari was India's sixth opening pairing in 2018, and fifth in 11 overseas Tests this year.

After Vihari fell, Agarwal added 83 for the second wicket with Pujara.

The debutant missed out on scoring a hundred on Test debut but grabbed the opportunity with both hands, his 76 came off 161 balls with eight shots to the fence and one over it.