IND vs NZ | Batting in windy condition was quite tricky, asserts Mayank Agarwal

India got quite an aggressive start from opener Prithvi Shaw, but once he was squared up against a Tim Southee half volley, there induced collapse the past generation of Indian cricketers had been quite familiar with. The wind factor, which saw Kane Williamson’s cap flying past the boundary line and the sight screen coming out of the groove among many unfamiliar sights, had a huge role to play and Agarwal attested to the fact. 

“I think it was quite tricky since the wind blows at more than a decent speed, which makes batting tricky. You have to make certain adjustments right there on the field. That is definitely what I spoke to the management after I came back from the crease. As a batsman, it is not easy anyway, especially on the first day on this track,” Agarwal said at the end of the day press conference.

Although Agarwal batted well, like any classical Test match opener would, becoming the first Indian opener after Manoj Prabhakar in 1990, to survive the first session of a Test match in New Zealand, he was majorly on the non-striker’s end. While Shaw started attacking and held onto the strike, Pujara then negotiated the movement by standing firm, leaving Agarwal to play catch up as far as facing the number of deliveries is concerned.

“I don’t think about that at all when I am batting. Because as a partnership, we are growing. Whether I am on strike or someone else is, if you are batting well and the partnership is doing well, it is fine,” Agarwal added.

After Tim Southee opened the floodgates, Kyle Jamieson, who made his Test debut due to the absence of Neil Wagner, was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets to his name. In the case of Agarwal, he was dismissed by a nothing delivery from Trent Boult despite being set and that was something he suffered the wrath on social media. However, Agarwal played that down by saying in New Zealand, one can never think of them as the set batsman.

"They bowled good areas and didn’t give us any loose balls to capitalise on. But as a batsman, you can never feel that you are completely in even after lunch, the ball was doing a little bit,” the Karnataka batsman said.