Mayank Agarwal, who was adjudged as the player of the match for his dominating double century in the first Test against Bangladesh in Indore, credited the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli for motivating him to score big. Mayank played a scintillating knock of 243 as India beat Bangladesh by an innings and 130 runs.
During the post-match presentation, Mayank said, “It’s great to have somebody like Virat who can motivate you like that. When I got my first 150, Virat was at the other end (against South Africa) and he told me that nothing short of 200 would do.”
Even on Day 2 in Indore, when Agarwal reached the 150-mark, Kohli signaled to him from the dugout to scored the double, holding up two fingers in the air. And when Agarwal got to 200, he returned the gesture with a smile, to which Virat responded by holding up three fingers.
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The opener has been in brilliant form with the bat, notching three centuries in his last four Tests. Two of those have been converted to double centuries. With his knock against Bangladesh, Agarwal surpassed Don Bradman on the list of fastest to score two double centuries. While Bradman had taken 13 innings to get two double tons, Agarwal took 12 to reach the milestone. Only former India batsman Vinod Kambli took fewer innings to get two double centuries.
Talking about Mayank, Kohli said, “It’s dream come true to play for India, grateful for the start I’ve got. Hope I can continue. The mindset is simple when you see a young guy coming in to bat, in Tests I know how much time it took me to get those big hundreds, so I know the importance of getting big runs. It’s important as a senior batter to let them know to keep going. I want them to not make the mistakes I made as a youngster to make them world-class cricketers.”
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India’s comfortable win over Bangladesh was their sixth straight Test win. It is also the 10th time under Kohli’s captaincy that the team has won by more than an innings.
