Nidahas Trophy 2018: Decoding the Mayank Agarwal snub

The BCCI has announced the squad for the Nidahas tri-series featuring Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which is scheduled to begin on March 6.

Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have been rested. Rohit Sharma has been named the captain of the squad for the tournament and Shikhar Dhawan has been named as his deputy.

However, Mayank Agarwal, who has made truckloads of runs in the domestic circuit has been overlooked by the selectors.

The 27-year-old opening batsman is having a dream run in the ongoing the Vijay Hazare trophy. He is one of the key reasons why Karnataka have reached the finals. He has scored 633 runs in the tournament at a stellar average of 90.42.

Agarwal has made history by becoming the highest run-maker in a season, overtaking Dinesh Karthik’s tally of 607 runs. He has scored three centuries and crossed 80 runs six times in the past seven innings.

Also, he entered the record books in the recently concluded Ranji Trophy season by becoming the first Indian to score 1,000 runs in a month. He racked up 1,160 runs at an average of 104.45 with 5 centuries, including a triple ton.

Agarwal should be a disappointed man. He should have expected a call-up considering some of the key players are missing from the side. However, the selectors have stated their own reasons.

As per the reports, the main reason stated behind the non-inclusion of Agarwal, as understood from the quote of a BCCI official, is the necessity of a certain pattern in the Indian setup. As per this pattern, a player needs to have played with the India-A squad in order to be selected for the Indian squad.

The motive behind such a move is rather difficult to fathom for the outside stakeholders. We can only feel for Agarwal for not getting rewarded despite his record-breaking domestic season across all formats.

Author's take

Agarwal had played for India A in the past and if we go by what was quoted by the BCCI official, the domestic performer should have been part of the current India A squad. Nevertheless, he will get selected for the India A team soon and if he keeps continuing with his purple patch, playing for India is not far away.