Deepak Malik / Sportzpics for BCCI
Mayank Agarwal has replaced Shikhar Dhawan for the 3-match ODI series against the West Indies starting on December 15 in Mumbai. Mayank Agarwal, who has had a sensational year in Test cricket, will hope for a maiden ODI cap this month. Agarwal was a part of the World Cup squad as a replacement for Vijay Shankar but did not get a game. It now remains to be seen whether India choose to send Mayank Agarwal or KL Rahul as Rohit Sharma’s opening partner in the 3 ODIs against West Indies.
Here we bring out 3 reasons why we believe Mayank should partner Rohit in IND vs WI ODI series.
This newly formed Indian test opening pair seems to get along very well and have worked magic for India. 317 run stand between them in the test match against South Africa was the third-highest opening partnership for India in Tests and the biggest partnerships for any wicket for India against South Africa. And it was the first time since 2013 that an opening partnership lasted for 80 overs or more, Rohit and Agarwal stood for 82 overs in that Test. The reason that this successful test pair can be transformed into the ODI setup is that their approach in test wasn’t the conventional safe approach but was an aggressive one. They went about it in their own style, a record 12 sixes were hit by India openers in their 317 run stand- six each for Rohit and Agarwal and it was the most by openers for any team in Test innings.
What more can Mayank Agarwal do? Two-thousand plus runs in 2017-18, the most-ever in a domestic season in India. Centuries for India A in England, a double-century for India A against South Africa A at home and he was the leading run-scorer for Karnataka in the 2018–19 Vijay Hazare Trophy, with 251 runs in seven matches. Agarwal’s purple patch began in the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy, where he piled up 1160 in 13 innings at a strike-rate of 68.80. He’s always been a hard-hitter of the ball, particularly when he is able to flat-bat it right through the line, a style of play well suited for ODI cricket.
He had an impressive start to his Test career in Australia with scores of 76, 42 and 77, he had a poor series in the West Indies but made up for it in India’s home season against South Africa and Bangladesh wherein he scored two double hundreds and a hundred and forged a strong opening partnership with Rohit Sharma.
Going by Rahul’s stellar performance as an opener in the recently concluded T20I’s against West Indies, it will be tempting for the management to play him as an opener in ODI’s as well. But the fact to be taken into account is that he has been inconsistent in ODI’s with just 704 runs in his 23 appearances at a mediocre average of 34.6 most of which has come at the opening slot. Also, he hasn’t been able to cope up to the pressures of big crunch games, as we saw in the world cup knockouts. So it’s worth giving a chance to his dear friend and a proven test opener Mayank Agarwal.