Mayank Agarwal achieves rare feat, registers over 1000 runs in a single Ranji season

26-year-old Karnataka batsman Mayank Agarwal has taken great strides in his cricketing career. And recently, the former Delhi Daredevils batsman achieved a rare feat in first-class cricket. He registered over 1000 runs in the ongoing season of the Ranji Trophy in the month of November alone. He took his run tally to 1,033 -now a record in the tournament. His 1000 runs comprised of five centuries including one triple ton- 304 not out against Maharashtra in Pune.

In Karnataka’s recently concluded encounter against Railways, the top order batsman notched up 173 and 134 in each innings respectively, in the process forcing the home side to a 209-run defeat. While the statistics for the highest number of runs in a month could not be traced, Australian batsman Bill Ponsford’s 1,146 runs from five innings in December 1927 is the only comparable case (excluding England players).

Agarwal has a chance to surpass VVS Laxman‘s record

Agarwal, however, had a slow start to his Ranji campaign. He could manage to score only 31 against Assam in the first encounter and bagged a pair against Hyderabad in Shivamogga. Since then, he’s had a turnaround in his fortunes and has played some impeccable knocks registering scores of 304, 176, 23, 90, 133 not out, 173, 134. He looked in sublime form while his innings depicted the ethos of a free-flowing game.

The versatile batsman has credited this turnaround to the skill-based training he had undertaken from former Indian wicketkeeper, Robin Uthappa. Speaking about his student, the glovesman disclosed, “He has worked on his technique a lot. He used to have this trigger movement in particular where the front foot used to come across, and create problems for him. We used to talk about it a bit. He has a really stable base now and that has helped his game,” he was quoted as saying by HT.

Agarwal has come a long way ever since his foray into international cricket. And the promising batsman is just 382 runs away from taking on VVS Laxman’s record for most runs in a single Ranji season.  Now, with Karnataka having made it to the quarterfinals, Agarwal could be on his way to making his mark in the tournament’s history.