Why Mayank Agarwal’s match-winning runs in Vijay Hazare knockouts didn’t count towards India selection

So it turns out that it wasn’t a case of what more Agarwal had to do. For, it really didn’t matter what he did. The call had been taken before he even got down to it, a week before the Vijay Hazare Trophy final in which he incidentally top-scored for winners Karnataka with 90.

It is learnt that BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary had called for a selection committee meeting on February 20 at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai. In the notice issued to the national selectors and team management, which has been accessed by The Indian Express, it says, “A meeting of the senior selection committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will be held on Tuesday, 20th February. 2018 at 11 am IST… at BCCI HQ, Cricket Centre.”

India were playing the first of three T20Is against South Africa on February 20 when the squad was being picked. It’s further learnt that the BCCI had ensured the team management that they’d keep the squad under wraps and only announce it once the tour of South Africa was over. The squad was officially only released on February 25, five days after it’d been finalised. A number of BCCI officials have confirmed to this paper that the meeting did take place.

Incidentally, the tri-series in Sri Lanka doesn’t start till March 6, which begs the question why the selectors were in such a hurry to pick the squad. The only outcome of their decision is them not being able to take into account Agarwal’s tremendous form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Not like he needed to remind them of his ability or his hunger for a run glut.

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Here was a young batsman, still only 27, who’d scored big runs against almost every opposition and in every format available. He’d scored 1160 runs at 105.45 with a triple-century and 4 other three-figure scores in first-class cricket. There is one argument that Agarwal’s 723 runs at 90.37 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy came in 50-over cricket while the squad picked for Sri Lanka was for a T20I tournament. But even if it wasn’t as startling as his other performances, his T20 returns for Karnataka in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with three fifties in 9 innings at a strike rate of 144.94 cannot be ignored either.

And what’s even stranger is that MSK Prasad and his colleagues eventually did gather in Delhi for the Vijay Hazare knockouts and witnessed Agarwal adding to his already handsome season tally with a spate of eye-catching scores.

Prasad did, however, say that he had had a word with Mayank. “No player should be confused about where he stands. Our committee speaks to every player – even those who are not selected and try to give them a fair picture. Accordingly, I spoke to Mayank and told him that with his brilliant performances in domestic cricket, he has now definitely got himself in the mix (national team reckoning). I told him that he is now in the queue.”