Visakhapatnam: Summoned to Melbourne last December, midway through the tour of Australia, Mayank Agarwal took little time to embrace the challenge of Test cricket. A new outlook to life as a whole, and to batting and fitness in particular, had brought him a bucketful of runs including more than a thousand in the Ranji Trophy in one month alone towards the end of 2017.

Extending that purple patch, he fashioned efforts of 76 and 42 at the MCG to play a significant hand in India's 137-run win which eventually helped them secure a historic 2-1 series triumph. Three fifties in his first six Test knocks held the promise of plenty to follow, and Agarwal delivered on that promise yesterday, converting his maiden century at the international level to a monumental 215.