NEWS
The city of Bengaluru is one of the biggest sports hub in India. Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Venkatesh Prasad, Roger Binny, Robin Uthappa etc are some of the legends who have trained in Bengaluru and have done wonders to the nation. The domestic structure of cricket in Karnataka is one of the strongest among all the states in India. The team of Karnataka is the 2nd most successful team in Ranji Trophy, with 8 titles to their name. Recently, players like KL Rahul and Karun Nair have showed a lot of promise at the international level for India. One such emerging player from Bengaluru is Mayank Agarwal, who has performed really well in the domestic circuit in the past 3-4 years, and recently got an opportunity to represent the Indian test team in December 2018.
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Mayank Agarwal |
| Age | 28 |
| Date of Birth | 16 February 1991 |
| Hometown | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India |
| Height | 5' 9” |
| Test Debut | 26 December 2018 |
| Batting Style | Right-handed |
| Bowling Style | Right-arm off break |
| Teams Played for | Karnataka, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils, Rising Pune Supergiants, Kings XI Punjab |
| IPL Debut | 2011 |
| Playing Position | Opening batsman |
Mayank was the highest run-getter for India in the 2010 U-19 World Cup
Mayank Agarwal was born and brought up in Bangalore and is an alumni of Bishop Cotton Boys’ School and Jain University. He scored 432 runs in 5 matches at an average of 54 in the Cooch Behar Trophy 2008-09, which is an U-19 Tournament played among the state teams of India. Mayank also scored a match winning 160 for the Indian U-19 team against Australia and hence got selected for the U-19 World Cup of 2010 in New Zealand. He was the leading scorer for India in that tournament.
Mayank Agarwal scored 304 against Maharashtra at Pune in a 2017/18 Ranji Trophy match
Mayank started his career as a limited overs batsman. Following his performance in the U-19 World Cup, he was selected for the India A side. Although being considered as a limited overs batsman, Mayank made his Ranji debut in the 2013/14 season. Agarwal showed his class in the 2017/18 season, when he scored more than 1160 runs in just 9 matches at an average of 105.45 for Karnataka! He was the highest run-getter in that season. Agarwal proved what he was made of and scored an unimaginable innings of 304* against Maharashtra at Pune and won the match quite comfortably for Karnataka.
-- Advertisement --
The 2017/18 and 2018/19 Vijay Hazare Trophy witnessed Mayank as the highest run-scorer with 723 and 251 runs to his name respectively. In 2017/18 season, he scored 2,141 first-class runs across all formats which is the most number of runs by a batsman in an Indian domestic season. With these performances, Mayank proved that he was not just a white-ball cricketer, but also had the potential to represent the Indian team in test cricket. In June 2018, BCCI awarded Agarwal with the Madhavrao Scindia Award for being the highest run-scorer in Ranji Trophy 2017/18. Later in November 2018, Agarwal was named as “One of the 8 players to watch out for” ahead of the 2018/19 Ranji Trophy.
Agarwal made his IPL debut for RCB against Kochi Tuskers Kerala in 2011
In IPL 2011, he was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore. Mayank made his debut against Kochi Tuskers Kerala. He got the opportunity to open the innings along with Chris Gayle. Although he didn’t have an extremely successful season, but there were instances when Mayank showed all of us what he was capable of. In his first match against Chennai Super Kings, this young 20 year old smashed the legendary Muttiah Muralitharan’s ball for six with a stylish slog sweep on his very first ball! He also scored a quick-fire 50 (at a strike rate more than 200) against a very strong bowling line-up of Mumbai Indians. Although he showcased an attacking brand of cricket, Mayank was unable to be consistent with the bat.
In 2014/15, Mayank had to go through a lot of challenges with his body. He went through a lot of injuries, which is when he decided to get a good physique and comeback as a fitter and a better cricketer. Mayank was picked by Delhi Daredevils in the 2014 IPL Auction for a contract of 2 years. He had a very productive season in 2015 for Delhi Daredevils. The brand new franchise of Rising Pune Supergiants bought Agarwal in 2016. However, he didn’t have a good season and was later picked up by Kings XI Punjab in 2018.
Mayank smashed 76 runs in his debut innings against Australia
After his phenomenal 2017/18 domestic season, Mayank Agarwal was rightly picked up in the Indian Test Squad for West Indies’ tour of India in September 2018. However, Prithvi Shaw was picked over him and he didn’t get a chance to play. A couple of months later, Shaw’s injury in a warm-up game ensured Mayank’s opportunity in the squad as his replacement. Agarwal got an opportunity to make his debut in the very famous ‘boxing-day’ test match at Melbourne Cricket Ground on 26th December 2018.
He didn’t disappoint his skipper and the selectors as he played a sensational knock of 76 off 161 balls in his very first international innings. He went on to break the record of the highest individual score by an Indian batsman in Australia on debut with this innings. Agarwal scored the highest runs for India in the second innings when he added 42 runs on the board, ensuring that Australia get a huge target to chase. India won the game and sealed the series 2-1.
With his flamboyant knock of 77 in the fourth and the final test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2018-19, Mayank gave India a positive start which assisted them in registering a mammoth total of 622, thanks to Cheteshwar Pujara’s 193 (373). Although the match ended in a draw due to rain, it didn’t matter because India went on to win the match and get their first ever test series victory in Australia. Mayank Agarwal scored 195 runs in his three innings at an impressive average of 65.0. He showcased his class and sent a message that he aimed to represent India on many more occasions in the coming years.
| Mt | Inn | NO | Runs | HS | Avg | SR | 100 | 50 | 4s | 6s | Ct | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 2 | 3 | 0 | 195 | 77 | 65.00 | 52.00 | 0 | 2 | 19 | 5 | 3 |
| First-Class | 50 | 85 | 6 | 3964 | 304* | 50.17 | 60.82 | 8 | 23 | 514 | 43 | 30 |
| List A | 75 | 75 | 1 | 3605 | 176 | 48.71 | 100.72 | 12 | 14 | 448 | 63 | 28 |
| T20s | 134 | 129 | 9 | 2939 | 111 | 24.49 | 131.67 | 1 | 18 | 287 | 104 | 49 |
Mayank Agarwal replaced Vijay Shankar who was out of the World Cup because of a toe injury
India announced its 15-man squad for ICC World Cup 2019 in April with Ambati Rayudu, Navdeep Saini, Axar Patel, Rishabh Pant and Ishant Sharma as their standby players. Shikhar Dhawan was ruled out of the tournament after getting a hairline fracture. Rishabh Pant was the one who replaced him in the remainin gof the World Cup. Unfortunately, Vijay Shankar was also ruled out of the tournament following a toe injury. The board of selectors had an option of picking up Ambati Rayudu in place of Shankar as a top-order batsman. However, they decided to give opportunity to Mayank, who hasn’t played any international limited overs match for India yet.
Mayank was chosen over Rayudu considering his recent form in the domestic season and his brilliant performance against Australia in his maiden test series. However, he didn’t get an opportunity to play as India already had a well-balanced experienced squad for the tournament. We hope Mayank would very soon get an opportunity to represent India in the blue jersey as well.
Mayank currently plays for Kings XI Punjab in IPL
Mayank played his maiden IPL in 2011, when RCB bought him for ₹10 Lacs/year for 3 years. He later represented Delhi Daredevils from 2014-2016 as they bought him for ₹1.6 Crores. Delhi Daredevils later transferred Agarwal to Rising Pune Supergiants with the same price. In 2018, Kings XI Punjab bought him for ₹1 Crore. Considering the worth in IPL, Karnataka Premier League, domestic cricket and International cricket, Mayank’s total net worth would be 12-13 Crores (approximately).
Mayank Agarwal and his wife Aashita Sood during their wedding in June 2018
Mayank was born to Anurag Agarwal, who is a builder and Suchitra Singh. His wife, Aashita Sood, is the daughter of Bengaluru’s Police Commissioner Praveen Sood. Aashita and Mayank knew each other for a very long time. They’ve both studied in the same school as well as the same college. Aashita Sood is Mayank’s manager. He is one of the closest friends of Indian opener KL Rahul. Both represented India in the U-19 World Cup 2019 and have represented Karnataka together for years.
Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul are best friends off the field as well
Recent Post
