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Mayank Agarwal leaves for Birmingham to join Team India ahead of 5th Test against England, shares picture in flight
Mayank Agarwal is set to join up with the Indian team with captain Rohit Sharma's participation in their postponed fifth Test against England in doubt.
Mayank Agarwal is on his way to England after being reportedly called up by the Indian team ahead of their postponed fifth Test against England. Agarwal shared a photo of himself in flight and wrote that he is en route to Birmingham, where the fifth Test is set to be played from July 1.
Agarwal had reportedly been called up as a stand-by opener with captain Rohit Sharma testing positive for Covid-19. Mayank last played for India in March during the two home Tests against Sri Lanka, where he scored 59 runs, and was not named in the original squad for the Edgbaston game. He has since turned up for Punjab Kings in the IPL 2022, and as captain scored 196 runs from 13 matches.
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Rohit is still recovering from Covid-19 and with KL Rahul also ruled out of the tour with an injury, India are short of options to open the innings with Shubman Gill. It has been learnt that the BCCI is not pressing the panic button just yet with Rohit's status for the match. With four full days left between now and the start of the Test, if Rohit returns a negative result upon being re-tested, he will feature in the series-deciding match in Birmingham. Rohit's illness has put the team in a bit of a spot as with him gone, India face two big questions - who opens with Gill and who captains.
While the addition of Agarwal solves one problem, who will take command of the team if Rohit is unfit remains to be seen. With Rahul out injured, there is no current vice-captain in the team but the two options that could emerge as frontrunners are Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah. In February, Bumrah was named vice-captain during the ODIs in South Africa and he could get the nod ahead of Pant if it comes down to it.
Whereas, there is also the possibility of former captain Virat Kohli leading the team in Rohit's absence, even though the chances of it happening are really slim. It was originally under Kohli that India played some stunning cricket last year in England to take a 2-1 lead, with wins at Lord's and Oval.
