Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri played a major role: A BCCI source has confirmed the Indian captain and coach wanted Agarwal in Indian side.
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Opening batsman Mayank Agarwal getting named in the Indian squad for the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 came as a baffling development for most of us. Indian selectors sending an uncapped player as all-rounder Vijay Shankar’s replacement was too much too fathom in the beginning.
Mayank Agarwal in List A cricket in the last 24 months:
31 inns
1747 runs
58.23 avg
105.75 SR
7 100s
6 50sIn England:
6 inns
442 runs
88.40 avg
113.62 SR
3 100s#CWC19 #TeamIndia— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) July 1, 2019
Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri played a major role
A source close to the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) has now opened up on the reason behind Agarwal getting a go ahead of other batsmen of the likes of Ambati Rayudu, Shubman Gill, Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer.
“The team management had made it clear that they wanted Mayank [Agarwal] as replacement for the injured [Vijay] Shankar. There was no question of the selectors debating that,” the source was quoted as saying in an interview with IANS.
The source also highlighted Agarwal’s stellar List A record in the English conditions. Been a regular part of the India A team, the 28-year old has done exceedingly well especially against England A.
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“If you see the record he had during the one-day series against the ‘A’ teams, you will see that he scored 287 runs in four innings with two hundreds. Not to forget his 151 against Leicestershire in the warm-up game. That series was also played in June and July and the general thought is that he is versatile and can adapt well,” the source added.
Agarwal had made his Test debut against Australia during the Boxing Day Test last year. Having scored a couple of half-centuries in as many matches, Agarwal had showed a lot of composure at the highest level.
