Inside out | Mayank Agarwal’s technique is a mess, and so is Indian team management

The road to hell is paved with good intentions and by the looks of it, this proverb has come to bite the Indian opener Mayank Agarwal who has been shown the exit door before the third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). The development will surely come as a disappointing one for Agarwal, and rightly so, as he was touted as the number one opener for India in Tests before the tour of Australia. 

Some experts went a step ahead and rated him as among the few batsmen who tick all boxes to become an all-format opener for India. So, what happened that left Agarwal on the edge before the MCG Test, and twin failures in that Test actually threw him off the cliff before the SCG game.

Agarwal has undergone many transitions in his short international and long domestic career. He first burst onto the scene with swashbuckling stroke-play for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), but he could never cement his position in the star-studded batting line up, more due to his inability to convert explosive starts into substantive innings and, more often than not, was guilty of being over attacking.

He was smart enough to understand his undoing and he went old-school ways to conquer his frailties. He spent time with a personal coach to balance his mental game and paid special attention to not throwing his wicket away playing loose shots. The move paid dividends and Agarwal started rising through the ranks in the domestic circuit to stake a claim in the senior team. His batting temperament paved the way for his entry in the India A team where he kept on piling runs to bang the selection door down.

Ironically, it was the tour of Australia two years back when he was brought in as an emergency replacement after the second Test when the team management had enough of Murali Vijay and KL Rahul. Now he faces the axe after same two Tests on the tour of Australia.

There are two aspects of Agarwal’s losing form in Tests and they are - the technical changes he brought into his game and how the team management handled his case.

First thing first. On the technical aspect of his failures in the first two Tests, Agarwal has been found wanting on the balls that came back into him, and his lack of awareness about the off stump, while being worried about the ball shaping back to him, has also grabbed attention. In two of the four innings, he was been pinned in front of the stumps and Cummins has gone through his gate once while Starc found him late on a ball that swung back considerably from the line outside the off stump. 

He also got a jaffa from Hazlewood on the third morning of the Adelaide Test, but he was caught back in the crease and he clearly appeared late on the ball. Experts and close watchers of the game had pointed out his higher backlift and wider stance as reasons behind him coming late towards the ball. A short analytical video on the host broadcaster of Cricket Australia - Channel 7 - clearly emphasized the change Agarwal has brought in the game from his last series in Australia where he looked like the batsman who could do no wrong while in the four innings he batted on this tour, he has barely looked like the batsman he was two years ago.

For sure, Agarwal would have made the changes in his batting stance and backlift to bring power in his game to excel in the T20 format and specifically, in the IPL. He had scored runs in the Test format, and as per the demands of the current era of cricket, he intended to own the T20 format as well. Notably, he had revealed his intentions of making a special effort to make the IPL 2020 count. One can’t blame Agarwal to be ambitious and trying to ace all formats, but his well-intended tactics to excel in the T20 have been the probable reason behind his downfall in the Tests.

Now comes the point of how did the team management handle his case and was he taken care of in terms of giving proper backing and letting him know about the advantages and disadvantages of a changed batting stance.  The management of the team is being done by professionals and hence, there should be no doubt about the latter, but questions must be raised on how he has been handled by the team management in Australia.

There are enough shreds of evidence available with respect to other players that establish the callousness of the team management in terms of managing players who start losing their shine after making a grand entry on the big stage. Prithvi Shaw was backed to come good against the pink ball in Adelaide but was dropped just after two failures against high-quality bowling. 

Yes, he was exposed by the quality of the Australian pacers and should never have been picked, but the fact he got the backing to come good even with a loose technique in the first Test and then being given up just after one begs the question - Is the team management is cutting down the length of ropes for players, especially the younger ones?

Prithvi Shaw, Karun Nair, and now Agarwal have faced this problem with the team management while on the other hand, the likes of KL Rahul has received a far longer rope from the team management and he was also included in the squad even without playing domestic first-class cricket and earning his place back. 

Shaw was replaced by Shubman Gill, who by all means looked more assured in his footwork and looked solid in defence. But so was Agarwal on the last tour. What if Shubman Gill loses his patience and keeps edging the ball to slip cordon while attempting to drive without moving his front foot like the way he got out in the first innings at the MCG after a good start? If the yardsticks that were followed to drop Agarwal and Shaw would be followed, Gill too will face the axe after a few failures and it will leave the team management with a Frankenstein monster, with too many contenders for the opener's slot but not enough batsmen in a right frame of mind to bat freely and without the feeling of a cut-throat competition where one edge to slip will work as a sword for a career built on the back of years of hard work in domestic cricket.

What has happened with Agarwal was an inevitable event with Rohit Sharma returning to the team, but the team management needs to remind itself of the story of Murali Vijay - how the policy of horses for courses and continuous chopping and changing ruined his game. Once an opener who could leave the balls outside off stump for days, Vijay kept on edging the ball to slip cordon in pursuit of balls far away from his reach, in an uncharacteristic fashion showing nothing but mental brittleness.

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