Murali Kartik
Murali Kartik (Credits: Twitter)

Former India cricketer, Murali Kartik condemns Team India’s decision to drop opener, Mayank Agarwal, for the third Test against Australia. Rohit Sharma returns to the Test side after missing the series in New Zealand in February earlier this year and the two Tests against Australia in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series.

In the opening Test in Adelaide, Agarwal did became the third-fastest Indian to reach 1, 000 Test runs. However, his scores of 17, 9, 0, and 5 made the management drop him post the second Test in Melbourne – meaning that both the Indian openers who started the tour are on the bench midway through the series as Prithvi Shaw was replaced by Shubman Gill after the first Test.

Mayank Agarwal
Mayank Agarwal (Credits: Twitter)

Shouldn’t have dropped Agarwal based on failure in a couple of Tests: Murali Kartik

While commentating during the opening day of the third Test, Murali Kartik expressed his disappointment at the exclusion of Agarwal, who as Kartik pointed out averaged a brilliant 57 at the start of the series. The former spinner understands that while Rohit Sharma was bound to return to the eleven, it should have been in place of Gill and not Agarwal.

The 44-year-old opines that Agarwal is scored huge runs recently, and shouldn’t have been axed after failures in just a couple of Tests.

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Pat Cummins, India, Australia
Pat Cummins knocks over Mayank Agarwal [Photo-Twitter]
Before amassing over 400 runs in the IPL, the Kings XI Punjab batsman plundered two double hundreds and a hundred against South Africa and Bangladesh. He was India’s leading run-scorer in the Test series in New Zealand.

Not to forget, the Karnataka batsman made his Test debut in the most intimidating circumstances on the previous tour Down Under – Boxing Day Test at the MCG – and scored two fifties in his first three innings against Australia. Hence, Kartik reckons that it is unfair on the 29-year-old to be sidelined after low scores in just a couple of matches.

“I know people are raving about Shubman Gill and he is a fine talent, but someone who averages 55 in Test cricket cannot be shown the door based on failure in a couple of Tests,” Murali Kartik said during commentary.

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