After scoring his 4th test match hundred at the Wankhede stadium against New Zealand, the Indian opener Mayank Agarwal has revealed that he had a chat with the former legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar on the eve of the test match.
According to Mayank Agarwal, he couldn’t do everything that Gavaskar asked him to do because it was not possible to make big adjustments in one day, but he picked something out of Gavaskar’s advice, applied it to his batting and it worked,
Talking about Gavaskar’s advice, Mayank said Gavaskar told him not to keep his bat too high at the start of the innings, which is something he wasn’t able to do, but when Gavaskar was showing him what to do, what he noticed was the fact that Gavaskar was more side on and that’s what he picked. He decided to be more side on when he went out there to bat.
Mayank Agarwal didn’t ask for my advice, I myself approached him: Gavaskar
When Sunil Gavaskar was asked about it, he confirmed that he had a chat with Mayank Agarwal. But, Gavaskar said Mayank didn’t ask him for any sort of advice. It was he himself who approached Mayank because the players and the commentators are staying in the same hotel in Mumbai.
Gavaskar saw Mayank in the hotel and he thought he should tell him what was on his mind and what he wants him to try. Gavaskar stressed the fact whether he is approached by a player first or not, he has got the love and care for Indian cricket in his heart and he would always offer any sort of advice that, he thinks, might help a player.
The hundred at the Wankhede yesterday was very important for the test career of Mayank Agarwal because there were question marks over his place coming into the Mumbai test match.
Ahead of the Mumbai test, some reports even suggested that the Indian captain Virat Kohli might actually replace Agarwal in the XI, which however didn’t happen and Kohli eventually replaced the injured Ajinkya Rahane, giving Agarwal another opportunity.
After this hundred, one would imagine now that Agarwal would retain his place in the Indian test squad for South Africa tour.
