One of the major worrying factors for the Indian Test team has been the lack of a stable opening pair in seaming overseas conditions. With the seasoned Murali Vijay and talented yet erratic KL Rahul failing to deliver the goods with the willow, the Indian team handed Mayank Agarwal his maiden Test cap in the third test of the ongoing Border Gavaskar against the Australians at Melbourne.
When Agarwal stepped onto the green turf at the historic Melbourne Cricket Ground, he became the 295th player to don the Indian hat in the longest form of the game. He became the 26th player from Karnataka to play Test cricket. The 27-year-old is also only the second Indian opener to make his debut on Australian soil.
Opening the innings with Hanuma Vihari in the Boxing Day Test, the rookie had a memorable debut scoring a well-compiled half-century against a quality Australian pace attack. He thereby justified the faith the selectors had reposed in him.
A free-flowing stroke-player, Mayank Agarwal has been making the rounds in India's first cricketing structure with some scintillating knocks with the willow.
Agarwal came up the ranks with his stellar performances in the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy in 2008-09 and 2010 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, in which he ended up as the leading run-getter for India.
Over the last five seasons, Agarwal has been a prolific run scorer for Karnataka in domestic cricket.
It is notable that Mayank has etched a name for himself in a formidable Karnataka team boasting of stalwarts like Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey KL Rahul and Vinay Kumar to name a few. He has won almost everything there is to offer in first-class cricket, being part of Karnataka's winning squads in Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare and Deodhar Trophy.
In the Indian Premier League, Agarwal has played for the Delhi Daredevils, Rising Pune Supergiant and Royal Challengers Bangalore. He currently is with the Kings XI Punjab.
Despite having a lacklustre 2018 IPL, Mayank scored a plethora of runs for India A in testing conditions against England, New Zealand and Australia. His purple patch with the willow earned him a deserving spot in India's test team.
Agarwal boasts of a very impressive record in first-class cricket scoring 3599 runs from 78 innings with a staggering average of 50 with 8 centuries and 20 fifty-plus scores. He has been a consistent run-getter in List A cricket averaging nearly 49 at a strike rate of 100.
Here are some of the records held by Mayank Agarwal:
He ended up as the leading run-getter in the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy with 1160 runs in 8 matches and scored a mammoth 723 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy that same year.
He holds the record for the highest number of runs in an entire domestic season, with 2141 runs under his belt across all the formats in the 2017-18 season.
Agarwal smashed an unbeaten 304 runs against Maharashtra at MCA Stadium, Pune in a 2017 Ranji match, which is his highest first-class score too.