Mayank Agarwal's childhood coach sheds light on batter working on his 'mental block'

Life has been nothing short of a roller-coaster ride for India opener Mayank Agarwal right since his Test debut at the Boxing Day Test against Australia in the year 2018. He impressed one and all with his gritty innings of 76 and soon cemented his place at the opening slot by having a great year in 2019 where he scored 699 runs which included two double hundreds. He was the first choice opener for the series Down Under in the year 2020-21 too.

The tables though changed drastically this time, as he was dropped from the squad after scoring 78 runs in three Tests. Shubman Gill quickly made a mark by scoring a match-winning 91 in India’s historic win at Brisbane and soon got more chances during the five-Test match series at home against England.

Agarwal’s coach RX Murali spoke to InsideSport on how the right-hand batter is working on his mental aspect and facing the rejection head-on.

Mayank Agarwal’s coach Murali sheds light on the mental aspect of the game

“It’s all about the mindset. You suddenly start creating doubts in your mind when it doesn’t match up. It takes you to a different spin altogether and you completely lose out on the mental process that you once created. It takes you to a mode when you start doubting everything. That’s what happened with Mayank,”  Murali added.

Murli also elaborated on how players are warier of being dropped after one or two poor outings. Agarwal’s coach also stated the importance of mental health and the challenges players face while playing at the top level.

“There is a lot of anxiety in a sportsperson. In sports, there are more failures than successes. When you are anxious about failing and know that there is a lot of competition and if you don’t perform, you are out, that adds up more. One failure adds up to worry and that gets bigger and bigger and you completely lose out on the process. After the Australia series, he worked on the mental aspect and did well in IPL.”

India are set to travel to England on June 2 to play the ICC World Test Championship final (WTC) against New Zealand followed by five Test-match series against England.