Once you get set, make it count: coach Dravid's advice to Agarwal

Amid competition, Agarwal continues to graft for his spot as Test opener ahead of India's series in SA

- Somshuvra Laha

KOLKATA: "A hundred is just a figure. But what if the target is 150?" Over a video call from Bengaluru, two days after following up a massive first-innings 150 with 62 in the Mumbai Test against New Zealand, Mayank Agarwal is decoding consistency beyond the clichéd realm of centuries. For someone who has converted four out of 10 fifties into centuries—two of them double hundreds-Agarwal gets more psyched by the empirical value of an innings than its numerical relevance. Hence his counter-question.

"You are not going to achieve that 'number' as such," Agarwal continued, “but it is that 60 not out or a 70 not out in a winning cause that gives the most amount of satisfaction. You give it your best and whatever comes your way, you take it." That “not out" part he added to the score was not done casually. That's how Agarwal is wired as a batter-bat long, bat big and be there till the end if possible.

"If it's your day, you gotta make it big," he said. When he gets to a landmark, Agarwal said, he doesn't want to stop. “I want to start from zero again." Despite his heroics in the Mumbai Test, Agarwal's "day" may not come anytime soon. Against New Zealand, he was in the team because India were playing that series without a bunch of first-team regulars, including Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. Now that both openers are back, Agarwal, who will be travelling to South Africa for India's next Test series (three Tests, starting December 26), may not find a place in the playing XI.