The Remarkable Rise and Fall of Ashton Agar

It was one of the most memorable Test innings of the past decade—arguably even longer.

Ashton Agar, 19 years old, on Test debut, in the Ashes, scores 98 batting at No. 11, taking Australia from 117-9 to 280 all out. 

They were not 98 scratchy, ugly or fortuitous runs; they were 98 wonderful, classical runs. His bat not a club but a rapier, carving England's superb bowling attack around a sun-bathed Trent Bridge.

He was selected as a spinner, but he drew comparisons with the great batsmen Brian Lara. It was the stuff dreams are made of. It couldn't get better than that...

And it didn't.

Agar was always going to struggle to live up to that glorious July day, and struggle he has. 

Two Test matches later, Agar was dropped. His immense promise with the bat was not enough to mask his failings with the ball—he was, after all, selected as a spinner, and Australia, 2-0 down after a hammering at Lord's, could not afford to pick a spinner who offered no threat. 

Agar has not played for Australia since.

However, his career has followed the trajectory it probably would have taken had he not ever played in that match at Trent Bridge or indeed at Lord's after.

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Agar made his debut at the age of only 19. He was not fully developed as a cricketer, and a little over a year on, he still isn't. His evolution is ongoing.

He was never going to be a front-line spin bowler. Australia's selection confused and muddled his description. They made people think he was a bowler.

Agar's batting was evidently his strong suit and continues to be. 

Only this week he struck 65 for his state Western Australia in the Matador Cup against Tasmania. He bowled, too, but he was batting at No. 7. Recently in the Champions League T20 in India playing for the Perth Scorchers, he batted as high as No. 3. 

His transformation is still ongoing, but Agar is no longer the spinner he never was—he is becoming the batsman he always could have become.

Admittedly, he is not the swashbuckling, curly-haired, smiling bombshell of that July day, but nor is he the wiry, gangly, ineffective spinner of the following two weeks. 

Agar is a batsman who can bowl, a batsman with class and panache.

Agar should not be judged against his 98, but he should be judged through the prism of his 98. That 98 is what this kid can do. However hard it may be for him to reach those heights again, he did it once and he can do it again.

In the cruel eyes of the modern media, Agar has risen and he has fallen. But in his own eyes, he has continued on the same path. The path of evolution from bowler to batsman. And he still travels that path.

Maybe, just maybe, one day we'll see him complete the fantasy he wrote for himself on July 11, 2013.