IND vs SA | Vizag Day 2 Talking Points: Mayank Agarwal’s resilience and lack of fielders behind square
BCCI
India showed what they have in the store for the ongoing home season as after racking up a handsome 500-plus score, the duo of Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin reduced South Africa to three down before stumps. The day, however, belonged to Mayank Agarwal whose resilience helped him score a double ton.
What’s up with behind square?
When you bat in Indian conditions, having fielders behind the square is a must, for it helps in countering the threat of late cut and sweeps. When Rohit Sharma bats, there can never be a second thought regarding this as behind square takes a larger portion in his wide range of shots that dominates the off-side. By leaving a blank field there, South Africa gave a huge gap to the Indian opening duo and subsequently, Rohit Sharma made a mockery of the fieldset to score runs at a brisk pace.
With de Kock standing up against everyone but Kagiso Rabada, there were plenty of chances that could have been converted to wickets, but they went begging. One inside edge missed the stumps, one top edge evaded the square leg fielder and after that, the batsmen had an entire array of shots to explore. Rohit was playing majorly on the front foot today and with Mayank Agarwal having a more dominant off-side play than yesterday, it was clear that India were going to pile on a huge score.
The reality check for Faf du Plessis came in the second session when he employed Dean Elgar at leg-slip and sent another fielder to backward square leg. Indian batsmen now had to be cautious in their shot selection, and when they tried to play in front of the square, wickets tumbled. Batting also became highly difficult for batsmen after that but South Africa were left to rue what was possibly a criminal error that they had committed.
Mayank Agarwal’s double century - a tribute to his resilience
Writing this from my office at Silk Board in Bangalore - the horror word for every Bangaloreans - I understand the difficulties that Mayank Agarwal had to face everyday while travelling from Electronic City to Whitefield to train under RX Muralidhar, his childhood coach. Travelling twice a day, Mayank Agarwal had already shown what he could do to develop his game. An excellent performer in the domestic cricket, Agarwal’s century today was a tribute to his resilience and long-standing patience that he had acquired through Vipassana, a meditation course in Maharashtra.
Indian cricket is filled with tales of players losing their mojo after one good season, primarily by losing their spirit, but for Agarwal, the longest route has always been the sweetest. He racked up numbers in the domestic cricket, never tweeted against anyone, nor did he give any interviews of regrets; rather kept on working hard for what he richly deserves. When it came his way eventually, he embraced it with open arms, ensuring he contributed to the team’s cause on his debut with a 76 and followed that up with another 77 in Sydney.Â
However, he lacked that one breakthrough performance that could make him a popular name among the Indian fans and what a way he chose for himself! Playing the first home Test of his career, Agarwal dominated the Africans for a solid double century to give a sneak peek of his quality as a batsman. He had done that many a time before in Karnataka and India A colours, but playing for India is always different and Agarwal won’t forget the day that easily.
Ishant’s change of angle - a tactic to counter Dean Elgar?
In the Ashes, Stuart Broad made David Warner his bunny. Jasprit Bumrah kept his round the wicket angle to trouble the Windies southpaws in the last series. Jofra Archer was dominating the left-handed batsmen like a bully and Ishant had taken a clue from that series. To make a point across, Dean Elgar has been a bloody good player against seamers with seam movement being his only kryptonite, and swing bowling not affecting his batting at all.Â
As a matter of fact, as Cricviz has it, Elgar, while facing right-arm bowlers from over the wicket averages 60.6 and in Asia, the corresponding number goes up to 84. However, from the round-arm angle, Elgar averages only 8.40 in Asia as compared to his cool average of 36.7 in his Test career against the pacers. This played to Ishant’s mind as he changed his angle to round the wicket when he bowled to Elgar, while keeping an over the wicket angle for Aiden Markram.Â
The cover fielder was standing up, with most of Ishant’s deliveries seaming away from the left-hander, which put Elgar in a spot of bother. With Ravichandran Ashwin seeming to regain his touch, Kohli stopped Ishant from bowling more than two overs, which gave Elgar some downtime, but those two overs were of high skill and patience, which captured the essence of what Indian pacers’ tactics are going to be against Elgar.
