The former New Zealand all-rounder, Scott Styris, who has taken a role of commentator in the ongoing Test series between India and New Zealand, heaps praise on the Indian opener, Mayank Agarwal.
The Karnataka born batsman, Mayank Agarwal has found an opening spot in the Indian Test team after his amazing consistency in the domestic cricket. He has not even played 10 Tests but scored already two double centuries in this format.
In the ongoing Test match between India and New Zealand, Mayank Agarwal could score 34 and 58 in the first and second innings respectively. Though he scored just 34 in the first innings, he was the second-highest run-scorer for his team in the first innings.
In the second innings, he managed to score fifty but could not convert it to a big hundred before being dismissed by the right-arm pacer Tim Southee. However, he was applauded by a lot of cricket fans for his intelligent batting against New Zealand and Scott Styris is one of them.
Mayank Agarwal is a great fan of the former Indian opener, Virender Sehwag. He is not as fearless as his idol but can play intelligent shots to score big.
In the New Zealand pitches, you need to be patient to score runs that is what the opener has done in the first Test. He waited for short-pitch deliveries and widths to score runs. Agarwal has done better batting than his teammates in the ongoing Test. This is the reason behind Scott Styris’ praise on the Indian opener.
“For a player with limited international experience, he showed his teammates how to bat in New Zealand. Anytime he got a half volley he would stroke it away, anytime he got width he put it away and that is simple batting in New Zealand. You have to wait, when the conditions are helping fast bowlers, you wait for width and you wait for overpitched deliveries. It is that simple, it is nothing more than that. It was outstanding,” Styris told the host broadcasters at the Tea interval.
Just before the Tea break, Pujara lost his wicket to the left-arm pacer Trent Boult. The Indian skipper, Virat Kohli once again failed to score as he could score just 19 runs before getting out to Boult while try to play the pull shot. Both Rahane and Vihari are trying to build the partnership at the end of 3rd day.
