Sourav Ganguly Cautions Against Judging Mayank Agarwal So Early

Mayank Agarwal earned his maiden call from the Indian team at a time when the side was struggling to find reliable openers. The likes of Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan as well as KL Rahul were struggling in the red-ball format. Prithvi Shaw showed promise but injury and a positive drug test has kept him sidelined since last winter.

Well, Mayank Agarwal did not take long to justify the faith shown in him. He made his debut in the Melbourne Test last December and went on to score a feisty fifty. In the following Test in Sydney, he scored another fifty. He registered another fifty-plus score on the tour of West Indies. The Karnataka batsman has now very much sealed his spot in the team after scoring his career-best 215 in the ongoing first Test against South Africa.

Mayank Agarwal’s performance so far might have convinced many that he is set for a long haul with Team India. However, former India skipper Sourav Ganguly is not one of them. The legendary cricketer is not ready to get carried away with Agarwal’s early promise and urged the same from others too.

“The problem is we come to conclusions very quickly. With one hundred we will say he’s your first choice opener and so on. But with a couple of failures, you would say otherwise. This has to stop,” Sourav Ganguly told PTI.

“Any young player who is doing well is a very good sign for Indian cricket. He played well in Australia. He struggled a bit in the West Indies. But in the first Test at home, he’s got a double against South Africa. Let him play for a year or so then we will judge how good he is,” he added.

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Ganguly also spoke about Rohit Sharma who opened in Tests for the first time in the ongoing game. Rohit made the most of the opportunity by blasting 176 and sharing a 317-run stand with Mayank Agarwal for the first wicket.

“It’s the same thing for Rohit Sharma — he has to perform consistently (like Mayank). It’s just the first Test match for him as an opener. He (Rohit) is a fantastic player and hopefully he continues to play well because Rohit Sharma in the form will strengthen Indian batting,” he said.

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