INDORE: On the eve of the first Test against Bangladesh, captain Virat Kohli was asked about complacency factor. With a wry smile, he went about explaining as to how most in the team know the importance of following the process they started together in 2014. Except for a player here and there, it has mostly been the same personal with few others getting opportunities.
Mayank Agarwal definitely wasn’t part of that initial process. He walked into the side in the third Test at Melbourne in 2018 when they were already atop the rankings. For a player who had to grind his way through domestic cricket, he already had some good habits like consistency. He had already shown his appetite when it comes to big scores. His main challenge was to bring that form to Tests too.
With KL Rahul fading from the scene at the moment and Prithvi Shaw having to deal with his own problems, there was an opening. While Agarwal has already done his part to be India’s first choice when they tour New Zealand next February, the four Tests he has played at home has seen him grab the good habits of his surroundings ie the Indian dressing room.
On Friday, the Karnataka opener feasted on a hapless Bangladesh attack for his second double century in four Tests as India scored 407 on Day 2 alone to take their total to 493/6 at stumps.
Speaking of Agarwal’s 243, the perks of walking into a batting unit that converts centuries into daddy hundreds has had its effect too. As he turned to the dressing room to raise the bat after touching 150, Agarwal — fighting tiredness — got a message from his captain: “convert it into a double”. While the Karnataka lad isn’t a stranger to such scores, it showed a glimpse of India’s ruthless habit, especially that of their batsmen.
Since September 1 2016, when every team apart from Pakistan have come visiting India, there have been 19 instances of India’s batsmen going on to make scores of 150 and above. Yes, most of these tons have come on what you call ‘true Indian surfaces’ where runs can be had once the batsmen get their eye in. But, one look at the record of opposition batsmen says it’s easier said than done. Kohli & Co. have shown no mercy.
In the same period, only three visiting batsmen have touched that magical mark of 150 — Steve Smith, Dinesh Chandimal and Dean Elgar. It isn’t that it has happened only at home. If one includes overseas Tests in the same period, Indian batsmen have scored 150+ scores 24 times or above with Kohli alone having nine such scores, followed by Rohit Sharma (4), Cheteshwar Pujara (3) and Agarwal (2). Australia (11) and New Zealand (10) are the only teams to have double-digit figures.
While the conditions at home has helped their cause, Agarwal showed the message for batsmen is simple: set one should score as much as possible. When asked who does he seek advise when it comes to occupying the crease for long, his answer more or less summed where it comes from. “You look right or left, you find enough dhurandhar (stalwarts) who have done it. You can speak to any of them,” he said.
“I think it goes down to understanding that there had been times when I haven’t got runs. So I must respect the game when I’m batting well. There will be times you are going to get good balls, get a tough wicket and get stuck in middle of good spells. (So), when I am building a big score, I have to make sure that I make it big and put the team in driver’s seat or put it in such a position that they cannot lose from there. Knowing that you are batting well, it’s now on you to take the team ahead.”