IND vs NZ: 'He may not be gifted, but I have faith in him,' Gambhir heaps praise on this cricketer ahead of 1st Test

Ahead of the first Test between India and New Zealand, Gautam Gambhir heaped praise on opening batsman Mayank Agarwal.

Agarwal, who has scored 872 runs at 67.07 from nine Tests, made his Test debut during India's tour of Australia in 2018. He had replaced out-of-form opener, KL Rahul, for the Boxing Day Test, where he impressed with scores of 76 and 42. Ever since then, he has been India's regular opening batsman in the Test format, while his partners have kept changing.

Since his debut, Agarwal has played in two overseas tours (Australia and West Indies) followed by home series against the likes of South Africa and Bangladesh. In his first Test at home, which was against the Proteas in Vishakapatnam, he registered his maiden Test hundred before he converted it into a maiden double century.

Agarwal had to wait for nine innings to finally get to the triple-digit score in Tests.

In the recently ended ODI series against New Zealand, which the Indians lost, Agarwal made his debut in the blue jersey. Unfortunately, he did not flourish with the bat this time. In the three matches, he registered the scores of 32, 3 and 1.

Even though Agrawal's bat did not score many runs prior to the upcoming two-match Test series, former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir has shown faith in the 29-year-old opener.

"I have a lot of faith in Mayank Agarwal. He may not be the most gifted going around but he is certainly the most organised. He will not treat bowlers with disdain like Virender Sehwag or a David Warner did but has the clarity of mind of an opening batsman," Gambhir wrote in his column for Times of India.

"Getting into the Test series, I don't expect overnight changes in the way the outside world reacts to reversals but I am glad that Virat Kohli's team looks pretty much protected from these assessments," the former opener further added.

Gambhir also mentioned about the younger players like Prithvi Shaw and Shubhman Gill as he said that it will be interesting to see how they adapt to New Zealand's tough conditions.

"We will have a new pair opening the batting for India. It will interesting to see how Prithvi Shaw or Shubhman Gill react to opportunities as and when they get," Gambhir wrote.