Mayank Agarwal Injury: The Indian opening batsman has been ruled out of the first Test match against England starting from Wednesday.
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India batsman Mayank Agarwal has been ruled out of the first Test against England which is scheduled to begin from Wednesday in Nottingham.
In what is doubtlessly a huge blow for the visitors, Agarwal has followed the footsteps of Shubman Gill whom he was expected to replace in the Playing XI.
Agarwal, 30, got hit on the helmet by a Mohammed Siraj short delivery in the nets and subsequently developed symptoms of concussion. The development will prevent Agarwal from adding to his 14 Test caps, the last of which had come during the historic Brisbane Test against Australia earlier this year.
Mayank Agarwal Injury
“The BCCI Medical Team assessed him, and a concussion test was conducted. He has shown signs of concussion and is ruled out of the opening Test against England,” BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) said in a statement published on their website.
With Gill and Agarwal not available, India might look to not complicate things and hand a debut to Bengal’s Abhimanyu Easwaran. Having traveled to England as a standby player, Easwaran was included into the main squad after Gill was ruled out of the series. Having said that, Easwaran playing his last competitive match more than five months ago could be a concern for the team management.
To address the issue around current form, India have the option of reversing their stance on Lokesh Rahul by handing him a Test comeback as an opening batsman. Rahul, who had scored a century in the warm-up match against County Championship XI last month, was being prepared as a middle-order option for this Test series.
Hanuma Vihari, who is India’s designated sixth specialist batsman in Test matches, could also be included as a makeshift opening batsman for he has played a similar role in the past at the highest level. Given the above three available options, India shouldn’t unsettle their batting lineup by promoting Cheteshwar Pujara as Rohit Sharma’s opening partner at Trent Bridge.
While a specialist opener in Prithvi Shaw had been named in the Test squad last month, he won’t be available for the first Test (and presumably the second as well) as he continues to be in Sri Lanka after being identified as a close contact of all-rounder Krunal Pandya, who had tested positive for COVID-19 after the first T20I in Colombo.
