In a display of quality batting, the right-handed batsman from Karnataka, Mayank Agarwal scored a double century to guide his team India A to take a mammoth lead against South Africa A on Day 2 of the opening four-day game at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
South African pacers found it difficult to stop Agarwal as he scored a smashing 220 off 251 before being given LBW.
In his 220-run knock, Agarwal smashed 31 fours and 4 sixes. He batted with a strike rate of 87.65.
Agarwal also stitched a crucial 277-run opening stand with his partner Prithvi Shaw who scored 136 off 196 balls.
Shaw had 20 boundaries and a six in his seventh first-class hundred.
The hero of the day certainly was local boy Agarwal, who hit his eighth first-class century. Following his superb show, Twitterati have suggested BCCI to replace him with Shikhar Dhawan in the reaming Test matches against England.
Dhawan faced the heat after he failed to perform with the bat in the first Test match between England and India and Edgbaston which Virat Kohli & Co. lost by 31 runs.
Get this Mayank Agarwal to play for team India.
— Abhishek __ #408 (@ImAbhishek7_) August 5, 2018
Among the most exciting options we have are: Mayank Agarwal & Prithvi Shaw https://t.co/1wm0CJ3DOY
— Arun Gopalakrishnan (@statanalyst) August 1, 2018
Beyond Vijay, Dhawan and Rahul, it’s now pretty clear the next in line are Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw. Both have impressed in every opportunity they’ve got. Priyank Panchal had a bumper 2016-17 season, but has fallen off a little since then.
— Shashank Kishore (@captainshanky) August 5, 2018
#ENGvIND All r flat track bullies in our team.Everyone wants Rahul in team considering IPL form.but no one wants Mayank Agarwal who had fantastic ranji year Nd even now also but he had bad IPL. Is selection should be based on IPL?#virat #RohitSharma #BiggBossTelugu2 #ESPN
— Balaji (@iambalaji1) August 6, 2018
Mayank Agarwal has done enough in domestic cricket & A tours to deserve a test call as opener. Prithvi Shaw too comes close on heels
— Jiten Gajaria (@jitengajaria) August 5, 2018
Agarwal had a great last season in domestic cricket where he scored over 1000 runs. Recently, during the India A tri-series in England, the right-handed batsman scored three hundreds.
