KL Rahul congratulates 'brother' Mayank Agarwal on double ton

Mayank Agarwal continued the fine start to his international career by blasting his maiden double century in the ongoing first Test against South Africa. The Karnataka batsman, who made his debut in the Melbourne Test in December last year, reached the triple-digit mark for the first time in his international career.

After a tough start to the Test that saw him getting troubled by Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada, Agarwal found his composure and there was no looking back since then. He scored 215 and added 317 runs with fellow opener Rohit Sharma who scored 176. The duo became just the third opening pair from India to share a 300-plus partnership.

Agarwal has been rightly drawing praise from all over for his fantastic knock. And out-of-favour India opener KL Rahul was also made sure to wish his friend and teammate on the latter’s special day. Rahul, who is currently playing in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, took to Twitter to wish Agarwal. Rahul congratulated Agarwal, writing, “Congratulations my brother, so proud of you… this is just the beginning @mayankcricket♥️”

Congratulations my brother, so proud of you… this is just the beginning @mayankcricket ♥️ pic.twitter.com/O8VY5VfVXR

— K L Rahul (@klrahul11) October 3, 2019

India, meanwhile, have put themselves on the driver’s seat after superb shows with both bat and ball. Riding on big tons from Mayank Agarwal and Rohit Sharma, the hosts declared on a mammoth 502 for 7. Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja then wreaked havoc with the ball to reduce South Africa to 39 for 3 at the end of day two.

‘Extremely happy’

Speaking at the end of the day, Mayank Agarwal expressed his delight over the knock. The right-handed batsman said he was glad about the way he batted. He also said that the opposition will find it tough to beat India if he and Rohit continue to play in the same manner. The ongoing game is the first instance of Rohit and Agarwal opening the innings together.

“I am extremely happy. It is a feeling I can’t describe. Glad that I could make my maiden hundred into a double. I am happy with the way I played, I am batting well and if we can keep batting together like this upfront, it will be great for the team. If Rohit and me can keep contributing to make 450-500 every time, it will be very tough for the opposition,” said Agarwal.

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