Mayank Agarwal In a 'Great Mind Space' Despite Missing Out on Maiden India Call-up Again

Mayank Agarwal has insisted he is not unhappy despite the selectors not rewarding his stunning form with the maiden call for the senior team.

Agarwal was the most prolific run-scorers in the last domestic season. The Karnataka batsman scored a record-breaking 2141 runs across formats in the last season.  He struck five centuries in the Ranji Trophy, three half-centuries in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and three hundreds and four fifties while leading Karnataka to the Vijay Hazare Trophy title.

He failed to impress in the Indian Premier League. But the right-hander did not take long to make up for his failures in the IPL. He impressed during the tour of England with India A. He scored two centuries in List A games and a fifty in the unofficial Test against West Indies.  Back at home, he scored 220 against South Africa A in the four-day match in Bengaluru earlier this month.

On Saturday (August  25), he slammed 124 for India B against India A in the ongoing Quadrangular series. But his efforts has not been rewarded.

Recently, his India A teammates Prithvi Shaw and Hanuma Vihari received their maiden Test call-ups for the ongoing series in England. However, Agarwal is not at all disappointed over the snub and is happy with the amount of runs he has scored.

“I think I am very happy with the progress. I am very happy with the way I am batting. I am in a great mind space and I want to continue batting and scoring runs,” Agarwal told Firstpost.

“Scoring 2000 runs in a domestic season is not a joke. I am very, very happy with the way I am batting. Yes, I did not have a good IPL. I have to look at my performances as a whole season and not just one tournament. I cannot say that I need to do well only in this tournament. I understand that I have not done well in IPL but if I have to look at whole year, I think I am batting extremely well,” he added.

Speaking about his experience of playing in England, he said said that facing Duke balls in English conditions will be a learning curve for him.

“I think it was a fantastic tournament, we got to learn a lot. It was a great experience to play in England for the first time. It was great to play for the first time against the Dukes balls in English conditions. It gave us great exposure,” Agarwal said.

“The challenge as a batsman was that you were never set. There is a lot of wind and the ball keeps moving almost all day long. And in a match, it is very important that when you are set, you take your team through. It is crucial because it is not easy for a new batsman going in to start hitting the ball from the word go. Facing the Dukes ball was a nice experience and a great challenge,” he added.