Not even a month into his tenure as India’s full-time head coach, former skipper Rahul Dravid is already displaying strong man-management skills as opening batter Mayank Agarwal revealed the legendary cricketer’s emotional hand behind his successful Test comeback.
Agarwal made an exceptional hundred in the first-innings of the second Test against New Zealand in Mumbai on a turning pitch and backed it up with another impressive half-century in the second innings. The aggressive batter’s approach at the crease nearly belied the fact that he was personally under huge pressure to produce the goods at Wankhede.
After having fallen down in the pecking order because of his struggles in Australia last summer and injury in England, Agarwal also failed in the first Test versus the Kiwis in Kanpur. He made scores of 13 & 17 only.
With KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma set to return for the following series in South Africa and young Shubman Gill, among other options breathing down his neck, Agarwal had to pull up his socks and come up with a strong performance in Mumbai, or he risked being left out.
The scenario would’ve been tough for the player to handle, but this is when Dravid came to his rescue and offered him mature advice. The legend told his opening batter to not worry about the outcome and focus on playing each ball as it comes, besides trying to keep his emotions in check.
“He [Rahul 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 the Hindustan Times.
“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.
Agarwal’s brilliant Wankhede performance meant that the selectors had no troubles taking him to the tour of South Africa as the backup opener. Who knows, if not for his great hundred, the Indian selectors might have looked past him and spread the net wide in terms of options.
Potentially, handing Abhimanyu Easwaran or Priyank Panchal, who are with the ‘A’ side in South Africa, a Test call-up following Gill’s injury.
