Sunil Gavaskar feels Mayank Agarwal will face greater challenge to succeed in second season

Indian Test opener Mayank Agarwal has had a fantastic start to his career and he had an exceptional outing at the Holkar Stadium as well against Bangladesh, where he was the man of the match for his career-best knock of 243.

While former India captain and a legend of the game Sunil Gavaskar is highly impressed with Agarwal’s success, he also has words of caution for the 28-year-old. Gavaskar feels that Agarwal will face a greater challenge in his second season. During a chat show on Star Sports, Gavaskar explained further by saying,

"He is enjoying Test cricket, this is his first year and hopefully he keeps scoring on the second year also because in the second season there is a lot more data available of you to the opposition but he has been batting beautifully."

Gavaskar, India’s most successful opener, further said in the same show.

"The way he balances himself without falling on the offside as he plays so straight and his movement of the front and back foot has been fantastic making him the man in form who is full of confidence."

Sunil Gavaskar

Agarwal became the second fastest cricketer ever to notch up two double centuries in Test cricket. The Karnataka batsman got to the feat in 12 innings, second quickest on the list after another Indian, Vinod Kambli (5). During the innings, Agarwal also equalled Navjot Singh Sidhu’s record for most sixes in a Test innings by an Indian -- eight.

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Agarwal made a memorable Test debut against Australia during the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne last year. He impressed instantly, making 76 and 42 runs in both his innings in the game. Agarwal carried on the good work with a knock of 77 in the New Year Test at Sydney.

After an underwhelming series in West Indies, he smashed 215 and 108 at home against South Africa before registering his second double ton against Bangladesh at Indore.

In eight Tests, Agarwal has notched up 858 runs at an average of 71.50 with three hundreds and as many fifties. With 740 runs this year, he is the second highest run-getter in Test cricket after Steve Smith (774).