India have announced the playing XI for the third Test match against Australia. Openers KL Rahul and Murali Vijay have been dropped after poor performances in the first two Tests where they managed just 95 runs together in 8 innings. Mayank Agarwal has been roped in to open the innings alongside Hanuma Vihari. He will be making his international debut and what better occasion than the Boxing Day Test at the MCG? What do we know about the 27-year-old?
1) Mayank Anurag Agarwal has a splendid first-class record, having struck his maiden triple century in November 2017. He's scored 3599 runs in 46 FC matches at an average of 49.98 and 3605 runs from 75 List A matches for Karnataka.
2) The opening batsman started his junior cricket career with Bishop Cotton Boys' School, Bangalore in the Under-13 team and modelled his batting on his cricketing idol Virender Sehwag.
3) Agarwal has featured regularly in the IPL having spent three seasons with the Royal Challengers Bangalore and two seasons with Delhi Daredevils. The Bengalurean has also represented Rising Pune
Supergiants and is currently with the Kings XI Punjab.
4) He was the highest run-getter in the last Ranji Trophy season and accumulated 1160 runs in 13 innings at an average of 105.45.
5) He made his first-class debut for Karnataka in November 2013 versus Jharkhand at Mysore. He made his List A debut versus Tamil Nadu in February 2012