Visakhapatnam, Oct 3: Mayank Agarwal scored his first Test hundred and went on to convert that into a double ton as India dominated Day 2 of the first Test against South Africa in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. Mayank first put up a mammoth 317-run opening stand with Rohit Sharma before managing 50-plus stands with Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane.
His individual score of 215 is thus far the highest score by any batsman in Test cricket this year, surpassing Australian star Steve Smith's 211 which he scored in the fourth Ashes Test in Manchester in September. The other players who have managed double hundreds this year are Jason Holder (202 n.o.), Kane Williamson (200 n.o.) and Ross Taylor (200).
Mayank is only the fourth Indian batsman after Dilip Sardesai, Vinod Kambli and Karun Nair to have managed to convert his maiden century into a double-century.
He may have surpassed Smith's highest score but it will take some remarkable consistency for him, or anyone among the Indian players to topple the former Australian captain from the top of the list of highest run scorers in the longest format of the game this year.
Mayank with 372 runs in four innings at a remarkable average of 62 is 12th on the list. Smith, on the other hand, has played the same number of innings as Agarwal but with 774 runs at a mind numbing average of 110.57, is a fair distance away from the rest of the chasing pack.