Shubman Gill‘s injury puts the focus back on India’s opening reserves, giving another chance to Mayank Agarwal to chart the next phase of his now-stuttering fairytale Test journey.
Sign up to The Cricket Draft, powered by Wisden, an all-new, free-to-play fantasy game running alongside The Hundred, to win prizes and compete with your friends.
Mayank Agarwal knows a thing or two about waiting. For close to a decade, he went through a cycle of disappointment, self-reflection and success, waddling through uncertainty and failure to transform himself into a run-machine too good to be ignored. His bat was his spokesperson.
In November last year, we were asking our readers the perfect candidate to open with Mayank ahead of the Australia Test series, so certain was he of keeping his place in the playing XI. In the two years preceding that (part of which was swept away by Covid), he had risen up the charts, rocketing past milestones to close out India’s long-standing problem of a dependable Test opener. He was the third-fastest Indian to 1,000 Test runs, and the projection was that he would sail through many more multiples of thousand.
Then came the Adelaide Test, a humbling experience for the entire batting line-up, and Mayank, struggling with patchy form, was pushed towards the exit door. Two Tests later, he saw Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma jump the queue. His rich patch from not-so-long back couldn’t compensate for the ongoing run-drought. Moreover, his new look at the crease – a marginally high backlift and wider stance – wasn’t helping him with incoming deliveries. When things aren’t going right, each tweak magnifies into a major cause of worry.
At the same time, Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma motored along, the younger one adapting to Test cricket with apparent ease, and the senior pro reinventing himself. As is the case with all specialist roles, an out-of-favour Mayank was pushed to the sidelines. For a 30-year-old who had crawled his way up the summit, a little slip had pushed him into a gorge.
It’s safe to say then, that Gill’s untimely injury has opened the doors for a Mayank re-entry. He’s the kind who silently sweats it out in the background, away from all the noise, in his own bubble, evening out his flaws. When reports of Gill’s injury emerged, Mayank was away from all the attention, enjoying a peaceful day by the St Nectan’s Kieve, posing for pictures by the waterfall, probably visualising the outpouring of runs that had recently eluded him. Close to a month later, Gill’s flown back to India, and Mayank is likely to get a chance to restart his story.
That said, there’s still competition buzzing around. KL Rahul has emerged as a dark horse, slamming a century in the warm-up game, which could either open a spot for him in the middle order or vault him over Mayank’s head. Alternatively, there’s specialist opener Abhimanyu Easwaran, recovered from Covid-19, waiting in the reserves, and Hanuma Vihari as another possible option.
Yet, the frontrunner to partner Rohit Sharma, come the first morning of the Trent Bridge Test, is most likely Mayank, a batsman who has shown the skill and temperament to adapt to altering landscapes in his short career.
In the tour game against County XI, Mayank was back among the runs, cutting, driving and pulling seamers in typical fashion, expressive as he usually is. Against spinners, he used his feet and depth of the crease adroitly, providing confidence that he could settle well at his customary batting spot. Most importantly, he was unhurried, spending a combined 149 minutes at the crease to gauge the new ball and settle in, even though the strong starts couldn’t capitalise into a big score.
With no fifties in his last eight innings and no Test appearances since January, Mayank would be itching to start with a clean slate. It will be an arduous challenge, for specialist Indian openers have seldom done well on recent England tours, but if there’s one batsman who is always up for a challenge, it is Mayank, who has, in the past, shown a habit to glue himself to the crease and come out with a big score.
“I have learned to stay in the moment,” Mayank told Wisden.com in October 2019, when he was flying high. “Like, I try not to dwell on a ball that beats my edge; that’s going to happen every now and then but it’s about how you can respond to the next delivery and a clear mind helps with that.” It’s exactly the sort of mindset a Test opener in England needs.
Before his breakthrough domestic season in 2017/18, he was facing 1,000 balls a day to realise his dream. The recent time away from the Test jersey would have compelled him to bring about the same zeal.
When Gill is fit, India would be tempted to welcome him back, for he’s shown all the signs of becoming a future superstar. Right now though, it’s Mayank’s turn, a batsman who has compiled two double-hundreds in his first eight Tests, the same number Gill has played so far. Before Gill was sidelined though, he wasn’t in the best of form himself, which means he’ll have to win his place back when he returns.
In the interim, if Mayank can reclaim his lost touch, a successful tour of England would go a long way in changing the balance of India’s opening combination in the coming future.
