World Cup 2019: It was Virat Kohli and Ravi Shahstri’s decision to call up Mayank Agarwal over Ambati Rayudu to replace the injured Vijay Shankar

Team India defeated Bangladesh in a crunch encounter to confirm their semi-final berth in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2019. Shakib Al Hasan and Saifuddin’s fighting half-centuries were not enough for the Tigers to go past India’s total of 314/9 and lost the game by 28 runs, thanks to four wickets from Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya’s 3/60.

Before the game, there was one interesting thing that came to light after Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bat, he revealed that Vijay Shankar was ruled out of the game due to a toe injury he suffered during practice and was replaced by Dinesh Karthik in the playing XI. It was further mentioned that Shankar was hit on his toe by a Bumrah yorker and it was serious enough for him to miss the remainder of the tournament and Mayank Agarwal was chosen to replace him in the Indian squad.

Kohli and Shastri behind picking Mayank Agarwal over Rayudu

As it was mentioned earlier, Ambati Rayudu, who had lost out to Shankar for a spot in the Indian squad, was named as a reserve player in case of injuries. Now the selection of Mayank Agarwal, who is yet to play limited overs matches for India, has raised quite a few eyebrows. Mayank was asked to fly in as quickly as possible and will be available for the Sri Lanka tie on July 6. Meanwhile, Rayudu announced his retirement from all forms of cricket after this snub.

However, a source has now revealed that Agarwal was picked over Rayudu as it was the call of the Indian team management, independent of the five-member selection panel. “The team management had made it clear that they wanted Mayank as a replacement for the injured Shankar. There was no question of the selectors debating that,” the source was quoted as saying on NDTV.

Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri are high on the talent of Karnataka batsman who had a very good start to his Test career and if need be he might  open in the upcoming games in the tournament. Also, his performance in the ‘A’ team’s tri-series in England in 2018 might be a reason behind them pushing for his inclusion.

Also read – Would be a fool to be tempted to bat like Rohit Sharma, says KL Rahul2019

“If you see the record he had during the one-day series against the ‘A’ teams, you will see that he scored 287 runs in four innings with two hundreds. Not to forget his 151 against Leicestershire in the warm-up game. That series was also played in June and July and the general thought is that he is versatile and can adapt well,” the source pointed.