New Delhi: Indian opener Mayank Agarwal was a stand out performer for his team with a century and a fifty in the second Test against New Zealand in Mumbai, recently revealed how head coach Rahul Dravid’s words of wisdom helped him with the mental aspects of maintaining his composure game come out of a century-drought.
Agarwal made his comeback into the Test setup after almost a year, he was a part of the team during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2020-21, before missing out on both the home and away series against England. On his comeback in Kanpur, he failed to make it count, dismissed cheaply in both the innings, but made a sensational comeback in the last encounter of the series.
“He (Dravid) said I know you haven’t got a lot of runs but just manage your emotions. Manage your mental energy and your thoughts. Don’t dwell too much on it, he helped in the mental aspect,” Agarwal was quoted as saying by Sportskeeda.
Despite being outshone by Ajaz Patel, Agarwal had a memorable outing as he joined an elite list of openers featuring the likes of Sunil Gavaskar to have scored a hundred and a half-century in the same Test match while opening the innings in Test match against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. His crucial efforts helped the team record their biggest win ever in terms of margin of runs.
“On the technical aspect, he insisted that this is the technique which gave you a lot of runs in the past. Just stick to that, the runs will come. Back the things that have worked for you, and fortunately in the very next innings, the runs came,” he added.
As a result of his performance, Agarwal found his name in the 18-member squad for the South Africa series, where India will take on South Africa in a three-match Test series on their upcoming tour of the country later this month. However, It will be interesting to seen if Mayank will keep his place in the starting 11 when openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma return.
