Mayank Agarwal ODI: The 30-year old cricketer has earned a comeback into the ODI squad after more than a year.
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Seven members of the Indian cricket team and team management have tested positive for COVID-19 four days before the first ODI against West Indies in Ahmedabad.
As reported just over an hour ago, batters Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and Ruturaj Gaikwad and standby fast bowler Navdeep Saini have returned positive COVID-19 tests.
According to an official release by the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), Dhawan and Saini’s tests were conducted on January 31, the day when the Indian contingent arrived in Ahmedabad.
While Gaikwad’s test was conducted on February 1, Iyer’s test was conducted on February 2. In addition to these four players, fielding coach T. Dilip, security liaison officer B. Lokesh and sports massage therapist Rajeev Kumar have also contacted the virus.
All the seven positive patients will have to self-isolate in their hotel rooms for seven days before rejoining the squad. The development has all but ruled them out of the first ODI scheduled to be played on February 6 at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Mayank Agarwal ODI stats
With vice-captain Lokesh Rahul also resting for the first ODI, India were only left with five batting specialists including wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant.
In such a situation, the team management was bound to call for replacements. While all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer and wicket-keeper batter Ishan Kishan, both of whom were part of the ODI squad during the recently concluded South Africa tour, were expected to be included, the selectors have handed a comeback to batter Mayank Agarwal.
“The All-India Senior Selection Committee has added Mayank Agarwal to India’s ODI squad after seven members, including three players of Team India (Senior Men) tested positive for COVID-19 following three rounds of RT-PCR testing,” BCCI said in a statement.
Agarwal, 30, had last played an ODI during the tour of Australia more than 14 months ago. Despite not playing a List A match since then, Agarwal earning a comeback is outright perplexing. The decision is quite similar to the selectors including spinner Kuldeep Yadav for this series in spite of him not playing any competitive match since getting dropped from the national team last year.
In his five-match ODI career, Agarwal has scored 86 runs at an average and strike rate of 17.20 and 103.61 respectively. If the aforementioned triad misses the Ahmedabad ODI, expect Agarwal to open the batting with captain Rohit Sharma for the first time in an ODI. It is noteworthy that it will be Agarwal’s first ODI at home.
India vs West Indies 2022 team squad – Rohit Sharma (c), Lokesh Rahul (vc), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wk), Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mayank Agarwal.
