Mayank Markande has been handed an India debut for the first T20 international against Australia at Visakhapatnam on Sunday, 24 February.
The right-arm leg-spinner, who got his first national call-up for the T20I leg of Australia’s limited overs tour of India, was seen receiving his maiden international cap during the team’s pre-match huddle ahead of the series opener in a video shared by BCCI’s Twitter handle.
Markande becomes the 79th player to be given a T20I cap for Team India – and only the seventh full-time wrist-spinner to achieve the accolade.
Markande shot into prominence with an impressive display for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2018 – picking up 15 wickets from 14 matches in what was his debut season in the league.
Those returns saw him fast-tracked into the India A setup, and the 21-year-old made a telling contribution in the Rahul Dravid-coached side’s recent victory in their unofficial ‘Tests’ against England Lions, taking 5/31 in the second innings of the decisive second rubber at Mysuru.
Aside from his 14 matches for Mumbai Indians last season, Markande has featured in four other domestic T20 games, where he has picked up five wickets so far.
His List A record has been attention-grabbing too; in 22 one-dayers at the domestic or India A level, Markande has claimed 45 wickets at an average of 19.97 and an equally-impressive economy of 4.52.
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