The new year for Mayank Agarwal hasn’t been good with a series of failures in the ongoing tour of New Zealand. The wretched run finally ended on Sunday when he scored 81 in India’s warm-up game in Hamilton.

Prior to his latest knock, Mayank’s series of scores read 8, 32, 29, 37, 24, 0, 0, 32, 3, 1, 1, raising questions about his confidence going into the two-Test series against the Black Caps.

But Mayank is optimistic of overcoming the challenges. “It’s been a little different playing here, but I want to leave all that behind. Whatever has happened has happened. Yes, I got an 81 in the second innings of this practice game and I want to take this confidence forward into the Test matches,” Mayank told reporters.

Mayank revealed that he had sessions with batting coach Vikram Rathour to sort out the technical glitches that might have cropped into his batting.

“Vikram sir and I, we sat down and spoke about the areas where I needed to improve. Yes, we have worked on it. After I got out in the first innings, I went back to the nets, did a lot of drills. I am happy, whatever I have worked on is coming good now.”

When asked about the specifics, he said that one of the issues was his closed stance. “Was just being a little too closed. That’s just one part of it. But it is what it is and I don’t want to discuss too much about it. We worked on it and we’ve moved forward and I would leave all that behind.

“It’s just one of those things that has happened while batting and I am glad that we are able to rectify it and move ahead.”

“There’s no point thinking about what’s happened. Obviously, I can’t bring that back. The last thing I can tell myself is yes, I have got 81 not out here and I can carry that into the Test match.”